(Searched and although this has been asked before I still can’t find an answer that makes much sense to me)
So how does a photon come into existence, and how can it instantly be travelling at C? I turn on a light bulb and photons are instantly created and travelling at C…but created from what, exactly? The light bulb filament is in a vacuum, but every time I turn on the light bulb new photons are simply created out of nothing (with no “fuel” to draw from)?
I guess I’m struggling to understand how heating the filament results in billions (?) of photons in a constant stream travelling at C, when a millisecond earlier there was just an inert metal thread in a vacuum.
In: Physics
Photons are released from electrons when they drop to lower energy levels. When an electron moves from high energy to low energy, the difference is released in a photon. The total amount of energy is always the same. Whether it is all in an excited electron, or if it is in a low energy electron and a released photon.
Photons are the force carriers of the electromagnetic force. Its EM forces are moved around. Atoms will absorb a photon and raise the electron energy, and they will release energy to create a photon. The specific energy determines the frequency of the light. Not only does this produce light, but also passes energy between electrons to generate electricity.
The simplest explanation I can think of is that everything is made of energy. Some condensed into fermions (particles of “stuff”) and some into bosons (particles of energy). Matter can transform from one form to the other as long as the total energy is conserved. Two particles can collide, the kinetic energy of the collision can cause electrons to move to a higher energy level. The electron will try to go to a lower energy level, and if it can, it releases the excess as a photon.
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