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Randy D
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Discussion » Questions » Science and Technology » Just how heavy is a light beam ?

Just how heavy is a light beam ?

Can anyone shed some light on this Subject ,not to much as I'm not wearing my sun glasses .... :) 

Posted - April 29, 2018

Responses


  • "Not very.  They're lighter than you might think."
      April 29, 2018 8:35 PM MDT
    2

  • 5614
    Interesting question. Photons are sucked into Black Holes the way matter is so at some point they must become weighty when gravitational fields are immense otherwise they would not be pulled "down" towards the hole. This post was edited by O-uknow at May 17, 2018 2:54 PM MDT
      April 29, 2018 9:50 PM MDT
    1

  • 16819
    Photons have zero rest mass, but as they are never at rest they can be said to have relativistic mass (Einstein) - defined as Planck's constant divided by (lambda multiplied by the speed of light). This figure (which depends on the wavelength of the light) is so close to zero as makes almost no consequence, so it's not very heavy at all.
      April 29, 2018 10:15 PM MDT
    2

  • 22891
    probably pretty heavy
      May 21, 2018 3:55 PM MDT
    0