sci.physics.electromag

On Mar 28, 9:41=A0am, Randy Poe wrote:
> On Mar 28, 5:03 am, shsfowcn...@mailinator.com wrote:
>
> > Hi all,
>
> > I wanted to ask for an explanation on the relationship between photons
> > and electrons when it comes to visible light and electromagnetic
> > radiation.
>
> > I read that light is electromagnetic radiation and also that it is
> > made out of photons.
>
> That is our current model, yes.
>
> > If both of these is true, is electromagnetic radiation a photon (or
> > photons) moving across space?
>
> It is believed to be a large collection of photons moving
> across space.

It might be worth mentioning, IIUC and etc., that the photonic
decomposition of a given field is not unique.

> > And why are the photons we receive in our eyes called electromagnetic
> > radiation?
>
> Because the properties of this large collection of photons are
> quite well described by Maxwell's equations as a radiating
> electromagnetic wave consisting of a propagating electric
> field and a propagating magnetic field.
>
> At radio frequencies these fields are easily observed and
> measured. (We don't have circuitry fast enough to do that
> with visible light frequencies yet, but we're getting closer).

Presumably speed is not the only issue. There is also the somewhat
circular issue of "quantum effects", which is to say that as frequency
increases, the size of the quanta of excitation do also, and hence our
ability to ignore them in a treatment qua classical fields diminishes.

Personally (that's my tag to indicate speculation, which at least I
label as such, vs. 97.93% for our friends) I'd say an electron is a
kink or twist in the field which, in the kink-free regions, registers
as photons: the electron is kind of a knot of photons, and that knot
spells "mass". Interesting though that mass, or "rest mass" can also
be manifested by a collection of non-knotty excitations -- therefore
"mass" most likely corresponds to field curvature (an integral of).
Energy always does -- but energy sometimes coyly hides without rest
mass, which it is flying about at c.