2

Relativity holds that energy and mass are equivalent via the equation $E=mc^2$ also I know in quantum mechanics we talk about electrons jumping into bigger orbitals if they gain just the right amount of energy, or electrons emitting light and cascading down into lower energy levels, as in the laser phenomenon of population inversion. Either way the energy of the electrons is changing which changes its relativistic mass.

Back in relativity we have nuclear reactions converting mass into radiation and vice versa. So both theories seem to be talking about the same thing. Some how or other the massless photon is able to condense into ordinary matter. What I'm interested in is what that looks like. Is matter just a bunch of dead photos? Are they perhaps waves that somehow got tangled up and they are interfering with each other photon in the nucleus so that they sort of orbit each other?

Another thing that's always confused me is when to use what theories where. My chemistry teachers seem to switch back and forth arbitrarily between relativity and QM to explain various phenomenon.

Jimmy360
  • 3,942
user273872
  • 2,613
  • possible duplicate of Do we really not know why atoms 'decide' to produce a photon? – ACuriousMind Jun 09 '15 at 05:28
  • The better way to look at the problem is that both atoms and photons are merely quantum states of quantum fields. "One photons at position x" is then just a quantum number of the field and it doesn't come with any man-made imaginary ballast. Compare it to e.g. "spin up" or "1s" for the hydrogen ground state. Would you ask "how does the 1s state get absorbed in the hydrogen atom"? If you don't, then why should you ask how a photon gets absorbed? Your chemistry teacher may, by the way, be the wrong person to ask. In chemistry the ball and stick model works quite well, in physics it doesn't. – CuriousOne Jun 09 '15 at 05:29
  • 1
    Fields of numbers makes even less sense to me. I love the idea of the universe being so mathematical, but I don't get the physics. So what do you have like the photon being a number with a location amongst some other numbers? How can numbers interact with each other/ move around? Or is that also the wrong way to think... Perhaps some set of rules like a function that takes the field in all its states and spits out a new field? – user273872 Jun 09 '15 at 05:49
  • @BrewDain: I'm afraid a proper understanding of phenomena like this comes only with a lot of hard work. The good news is that from personal experience I can assure you that it's worth the effort. – John Rennie Jun 09 '15 at 05:57

0 Answers0