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Light has no mass so it also has noenergy according to Einstein, buthow can sunlight warm the earthwithout energy?

Answer»

Light indeed carries energy and accomplishes this without having any mass. The Einstein equation that you are probably referring to is E = mc2. This equation is actually a special case of the more general equation:

Light indeed carries energy via its momentum despite having no mass. Public Domain Image, source: Christopher S. Baird.E2 = p2c2 + m2c4

In the above equation, E is the total energy of the particle, p is the momentum of the particle (which is related to its motion), c is the speed of light, and m is the mass of the particle. This equation can be derived from the relativistic definitions of the energy and momentum of a particle. The above equation tells us that the total energy of a particle is a combination of its mass energy and its momentum energy (which is not necessarily related to its mass). When a particle is at rest (p = 0), this general equation reduces down to the familiar E = mc2. In contrast, for a particle with no mass (m = 0), the general equation reduces down to E = pc. Since photons (particles of light) have no mass, they must obey E = pc and therefore get all of their energy from their momentum.



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