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Why is the rest mass of a photon zero?

Best Answers

But according to special relativity, light ALWAYS travels with the light speed c, and is NEVER at rest. And so it has zero REST mass. which means that though photons don't have rest mass, they do have energy and thus they have mass. The photons are wave particles. read more

Because if it had mass, it would violate conservation of charge. Because if light had mass, light would gravitationally lens differently than it does. read more

For a more concise example, a single photon has zero invariant mass, but a system of just two photons usually has non-zero invariant mass. So do not expect the total (or final) rest mass of a system to be the sum of the constituent (or reactants) rest masses. read more

« Reply #11 on: 07/02/2010 22: 42: 53 » Geez, you are right but since Adnan's question has been answered I thought it would be alright to discuss a related question. yor, an accelerated charged particle radiating should not be in doubt since it has been proven over and over again. read more

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