Sta Hungry Stay Foolish

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

A blog by Leon Oudejans

What is Light ??

I had assumed that (sun) light is a known known. Most likely, it is not. Brittanica writes this: “No single answer to the question “What is light?” satisfies the many contexts in which light is experienced, explored, and exploited.“

A solution is that sources mention visible light or spectrum (eg, NASA, Wiki). Hence, the “danger” lies in invisible light and the known unknowns (ie, beliefs), unknown knowns (ie, intuition), and unknown unknowns (ie, imagination).

Hence, my blog of yesterday, Light as a connecting force, may qualify as my belief, my intuition, or my imagination.

Albert Einstein’s “special theory of relativity implies that only particles with zero rest mass (i.e., photons) may travel at the speed of light, and that nothing may travel faster.” (Wiki) Note LO: marking in nothing by me.

In the words of the West Texas A&M University physics professor Christopher S. Baird: “Light indeed carries energy and accomplishes this without having any mass.” Hence, (sun) Light is (an example of) Energy and not Matter.

The issue is that Matter can also provide Energy (eg, atomic, gas, oil, water). This makes me doubt my (former) opposites: Energy versus Matter. Moreover, the mass-energy equivalence (ie, E=MC2) does not – at all – suggest opposites.

So, what’s the difference between Energy, Light and Matter:

“Anything that occupies space and has a mass is known as matter; however, the ability to do work or the ability to transfer heat is known as energy.” (source)

In my view, Light is the only force to transfer heat without human interference. Humans provide the tools for conversion of (1) matter to energy (eg, car, plane, train), and (2) sunlight to energy (eg, EVs).

Perhaps, energy is only a human concept. Without human interference, energy remains matter. Lightning can create (unneeded and unwanted) energy from matter (eg, forest fire).

I suppose Light is mostly an unknown unknown. Hence, the song below.

Blinded by the Light (1973) by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band (1977)
band, lyrics, video, Wiki-band, Wiki-song

Note: all markings (bolditalicunderlining) by LO unless in quotes or stated otherwise.

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