Photons are particles

The Forces of Nature by Kelland Terry, Ph.D.
The evidence that photons are particles is overwhelming; it is important to keep this in mind if we are to understand the experiments and observations involving photons. For this reason, I will not refer to photons as electromagnetic waves because this detracts from the idea that they are particles that just happen to have wave properties. As we shall see shortly, the wave properties of photons are due to their elastic strings.

The energy level of a photon determines whether it is a radio wave particle, visible light particle, x-ray particle or gamma ray particle, etc. Energy is a measure of the capacity of a particle to do work. It requires mass in motion. For example, falling water can be used to make a water wheel spin, which in turn can be used to grind our corn. It requires mass in motion. In the case of a photon, its energy level can be calculated as follows:

E = mass x c x c


E stands for energy in joules, and the mass of a particle is in kilograms. All photons have the same velocity, c , which is approximately 300,000,000 meters per second. This equation clearly shows that photons with high energy, such as x-ray particles, must have a greater mass than photons with low energy, such as radio wave particles, because they both travel through space with the same velocity. This just makes common sense.

I will come back to this subject in detail at a later time. I present it here to emphasize that the only difference between a radio wave particle, microwave particle, visible light particle, x-ray particle, and gamma ray particle is their energy levels, which tells us that the primary difference between different photons is their masses because they all travel at the same velocity.