How can particles such as photons travel in time if they do not have any mass? They are inseparable, so how can you have one but not the other?
1 Answers
How can particles such as photons travel in time if they do not have any mass?
The answer is that it depends on the observer's frame, as one has to use the mathematics of special relativity.
In the zero mass particle's frame all space variables are undefined, by construction of the theory.
They are inseparable, so how can you have one but not the other?
Why do you think so. In an observer's frame mass can be zero, while the (x,y,z,t) are well defined according to the relativistic four vector describing the particle in the observer's frame.
Special relativity is all consistent mathematically, but the important fact is that it is continuously validated by all the particle and radiation data we have up to now, except where general relativity has to be invoked, but that is a different story than the size of elementary point particle masses.
- 236,935