Question #7af2a

1 Answer
Paul N.
Apr 21, 2015

According to Einstein's theory of special relativity, as an object's speed increases its mass must increase.

#m=sqrt(E^2 - (pc)^2)/c^2#

Where #m# is the relativistic mass, #E# is the total energy, #p# is the total momentum, and #c# is the speed of light. A massive object traveling at the speed of light would need to increase to infinite mass. Since light does travel at light speed, it can't have mass. We therefore infer that the rest mass of a photon must therefore be zero.

Related questions
Impact of this question
3200 views around the world
You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License