How can particles be massless

What comes to mind? One way to prove it: Try to imagine that tiny ball as a particle with no mass. The mass of an object is measured by its resistance to a force. Most fundamental matter particles, such as electrons, muons and quarks, get their mass from their resistance to a field that permeates the universe called the Higgs field. The more the Higgs field pulls on a particle, the more mass it has. When it comes to composite particles like protons and neutrons, which are made up of quarks, most of their mass comes from the pull of the strong force that holds the quarks together.

They are also unaffected by the Higgs field. Indeed, they seem to be without mass. Gluons and the hypothetical gravitons are also massless, and therefore travel at speed c in all frames.

How can an object have momentum without mass? It can do this if it is a wave. A wave transports momentum via its waving motion and not by physically transporting an object with mass. An object with high momentum such as a truck can greatly influence the object it collides with such as a barrel. If a giant water wave collides with a barrel, it can also influence the barrel to move. The water wave therefore carries momentum even though it has no mass.

The water itself has mass, but the wave has no mass. A water wave is not a packet of water traveling along. In fact, the water that the wave is traveling through stays more or less in one place. Rather, the wave is a rippling domino-effect of motion. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. Community Bot 1.

Selene Routley Mozibur Ullah Mozibur Ullah Relativistic mass is generally deprecated in modern treatments. IMHO, the notion of zero rest mass is slightly paradoxical, since a particle with zero rest mass does not have a rest frame in which we can directly measure this zero mass.

Show 3 more comments. Gravitons if discovered would be another massless particle. Auden Young Auden Young 6, 3 3 gold badges 29 29 silver badges 51 51 bronze badges. If photons had mass they would not travel at the speed of light since no object with mass can reach the speed of light according to general relativity. Light has a dual nature: it is both wave and particle. If you could elaborate on your objection, I'd appreciate it.

I want to learn more, but I don't know where to begin. Moonraker Moonraker 2, 1 1 gold badge 14 14 silver badges 25 25 bronze badges. The massless photon traveling at speed of light is an idealized concept, even if reality is not far from it. Anton Anton 2 2 silver badges 10 10 bronze badges. Maybe they also don't interact? Featured on Meta. Now live: A fully responsive profile. Linked 4.

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