How can photon have energy, but no mass if “m=E/c^2” (E= mc^2)
In: 42
Because mass is mass not energy.
Energy is energy not mass
Although mass can carry energy (kinetic) it is not itself that energy, it can impart energy to other mass by collision, but no mass is transferred.
And energy can impart energy (light heating up a surface) but does not add mass in the process.
If you had a machine that could create mass from energy, you can use E=mc^2 (rearranged) to figure out how much mass you could create from a given amount of energy.
Or if you have a machine for converting mass to energy (nuclear bomb for instance) you can calculate the conversion using E=mc^2
We still don’t really know know what light is, we can describe what light does, but not exactly what it is. So if you were looking for “what is it, that it carry’s energy” well that’s hard to explain and starts getting into “quantum” physics and the untraviolet cascade, plank length and so forth.
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