Re: Does photons really travel?

In sci.physics.relativity, Smooth John
<yoshioory@xxxxxxxxxx>
wrote
on Mon, 5 May 2008 12:40:55 -0700 (PDT)
<5d7b2167-a326-4860-abbc-c4a68a1d5791@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
From a photon point of view, it never travel. For it, now is all the
time.

Debatable. Let's assume that a photon starts at (x,t) = (0,0),
from the still observer's point of view. Since we can't quite use the
Lorentz we need to get creative regarding limits, but we do know
that

x' = (x-vt)/sqrt(1-v^2/c^2)
t' = (t-vx/c^2)/sqrt(1-v^2/c^2)

for any massive particle.

Since for a photon x^2 = c^2t^2, we can substitute:

x'^2 = (x-vt)^2 / (1 - v^2/c^2)
= (x^2 - v^2t^2 - 2xvt) / (1 - v^2/c^2)
= (c^2t^2 - v^2t^2 - 2xvt) / (1 - v^2/c^2)
t'^2 = (t-vx/c^2)^2 / (1 - v^2/c^2)
= (t^2 - v^2x^2/c^4 - 2xv/c^2) / (1 - v^2/c^2)
= (t^2 - v^2t^2/c^2 - 2xv/c^2) / (1 - v^2/c^2)
= x'^2/c^2

This is fine for any massive particle, but since the
denominator becomes 0 at the limit, the best I can do
there is note that the numerator must be 0 as well,
which basically means it will be created and destroyed
in an instant (since the photon is fixed at x'=0 in its
coordinate-space).

So, in a way, you're right, it never travels. We'll never
know anyway; we weigh too much, and even the best diets
won't help... ;-)



Paradoxically, when for photons is now all the time, since the
beginning
Big Bang, it still takes billions of years for the rest of us.

This is likely to be impossible.

I don't see a problem here. Could you clarify?


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