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Is Light Matter?

Is LIght Matter

  • Total voters
    105
No, light is not matter. It is pure energy which equals to the frequency of the light times Plank's constant.
Light is made up of photons which do not have rest mass or it can be regarded as waves which are also propagation of energy.
BTW, on planet X it really doesn't matter.

Regards,
Yair
 
yairhol said:
No, light is not matter. It is pure energy which equals to the frequency of the light times Plank's constant.
Light is made up of photons which do not have rest mass or it can be regarded as waves which are also propagation of energy.
BTW, on planet X it really doesn't matter.

Regards,
Yair
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WOW! that was quick - Thanks
 
Light is not matter, in spite of the fact that gravity, which is a by-product of matter, can influence the path and wavelength of light (but not its velocity).
 
Is there a both option? Particle/wave duality and all.
ynot said:
ETA - Surely your vote would be a neigh
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I think you have just permenantly damaged my humor gland. I'll forward you my hospital bill.
 
Jimbo07 said:
I've voted.

What does opinion matter on this topic? What are you trying to determine?
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Thanks for voting. I’ve been debating this question in another thread and wanted to find out what other forum members think.
 
Maybe I'm showing my age but I voted that it was matter. Light has energy, therefore it has matter. Has something changed in the last three hundred years since I went to school?
 
Slimething said:
Maybe I'm showing my age but I voted that it was matter. Light has energy, therefore it has matter. Has something changed in the last three hundred years since I went to school?
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Isn’t it more correct to say that light is energy rather than has? Matter contains energy, but how does that make energy matter? A sponge can contain water, but that doesn't make the sponge water. Energy exists without matter. Do you also think gravity, magnetism are matter?
 
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ynot said:
Thanks for voting. I’ve been debating this question in another thread and wanted to find out what other forum members think.
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Ahh ... delving into the mysteries of consensus reality, eh?
 
Slimething said:
Maybe I'm showing my age but I voted that it was matter. Light has energy, therefore it has matter. Has something changed in the last three hundred years since I went to school?
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And like my socks I can pack an infinite amount of it in an arbitrarily small space.

Matter generaly refers to fermions and light is not a fermion.
 
ynot said:
Isn’t it more correct to say that light is energy rather than has? Matter contains energy, but how does that make energy matter? A sponge can contain water, but that doesn't make the sponge water. Energy exists without matter. Do you also think gravity, magnetism are matter?
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I'm not arguing with you because I don't know that light has mass or no mass. As I indicated back in the seventies and eighties, I was taught that you could push stuff with light which, to me, means it has momentum. To have momentum, you have to have mass. Also, as it has energy, by Einstein's equation, it has to have mass. Since photons are never at rest, they have no rest mass but do they have mass at their speed? Dunno. Perhaps the Theory of Relativity still needs a few codicils.

Gravity is a property of mass so it is not mass. Magnetism is a property of electronic configuration so it is not mass.
 
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