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Do photons have mass?

Photons are tiny packets of light might be radio waves, whereas a high and have energy in the form of frequency could be X-rays. electromagnetism. They don’t have Another odd effect that makes light mass, but they do have momentum – ‘appear’ to have mass is that it interacts a property in physics that’s usually with gravity. For instance, light follows attributed to an object’s mass. curved paths around stars and cannot However, the momentum of a photon escape from a black hole, but this is not isn’t dependent on mass, but on its due to it having mass. Einstein’s theory frequency. One way of imagining a of general relativity explains how stars photon is not to think of it as a particle, and black holes have so much gravity but as a little packet of energy made of that the space and time around them oscillating electric and magnetic fields. becomes warped. In this scenario, the Like any wave, it has a frequency which light is travelling in a straight line, but determines the type of radiation it its path has become curved due to the makes up. If it’s a low frequency it bending of space-time.

WHAT CAUSED THE IRISH POTATO FAMINE?

The famine was caused by a fungal disease called potato blight, which came to Ireland from Mexico. Blight made the potatoes quickly rot, and since one-third to half of all peasants were dependent on the crop for food, this led to more than 750,000 deaths. But the famine was also the result of the social and political system in the 1840s. As Irish Catholics could not own land or hold a profession, the peasants resorted to growing mostly potatoes – which could be grown in large quantities on plots of rented land – to feed their families.

WHY DO FLAMINGOS STAND ON ONE LEG?

For a long time this was a mystery. In 2009, two American psychologists studied a captive flamingo colony and concluded that it’s about conserving heat. Although flamingos are native to tropical climates, they spend most of their time standing in cold water, and their long legs mean lots of exposure to it.

Tucking one leg up helps regulate their body temperature. They usually vary which leg is up, and when the weather is warmer they’re more likely to stand on two legs.