What is a photon and how is it generated

Mel — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 14:56:40 GMT

what is a photon and how is it generated

RE: What is a photon and how is it generated

OronD — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 15:48:11 GMT

Hi Mel,
It's far too complicated to answer in a couple of sentences. Here is a link that provides you with a good background / explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photon
Best regards,

RE: What is a photon and how is it generated

Rocmike3 — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 08:14:02 GMT

Photons are gauge bosons that carry electromagnetic charges. No atom can exist without photons. Photons carry the charge from the lepton to the nucleon, holding atoms together. Also, photons are not utterly massless: Feynman and Dirac determined that photons have about 10^-7 ev mass, and change polarity at C. They lose mass by direct energy conversion, and can down-shift to a lighter space-time.

"Generating" photons is something of a misnomer: we "liberate" them by shifting the outer shells of elements with more than 2 electron shells. We do that by heating, applying static fields, etc.

Note that photons and electrons have one thing in common: they are "dual" particles. Note that photons hold exotic elements together (positronium or electronium) for two examples of the lower-mass periodic table.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positronium

RE: What is a photon and how is it generated

Mel — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 17:15:36 GMT

Orond: Thanks for turning me on to Wikipedia. They had the answer I was looking for. Thanks for the help. Mel

RE: What is a photon and how is it generated

Mel — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 17:19:06 GMT

Rocmike3: Thanks for the great comments. You explained it better than my textbook did. Thanks, again, for your input. Mel

RE: What is a photon and how is it generated

Mel — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 17:19:21 GMT

Rocmike3: Thanks for the great comments. You explained it better than my textbook did. Thanks, again, for your input. Mel

RE: What is a photon and how is it generated

Rocmike3 — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 08:36:08 GMT

Glad to help any time, Mell. Pardon me if I won't do your homework, but if I can get you started in the right direction, then THAT is education!

The more you know, the better it gets.