# So how old are photons?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-old-are-photons/555136>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 26, 2010, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-old-are-photons/555136 "2010-09-26T20:19:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-old-are-photons/555136/21 "2010-09-28T16:34:36Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> Maybe everything moves at C and some labyrinthine path detour makes other particle seem like they travel slower also? Like extra mass involves extra dimensional travel or…?

One can, in fact, regard everything as traveling at c through spacetime. Right now, sitting at my desk, I’m moving at 1 second per second in the positive t direction. If I had some spatial motion, then the component of my speed in the t direction would have to be different, to keep my total speed at c. Ultimately, this is the cause of time dilation in special relativity.

**Ring** , I seem to recall a quote (probably apocryphal) by one of the great physicists at the turn of the century that the only challenges which remained for physics were explaining the spectrum of the hydrogen atom and the anomalous perihelion procession of Mercury, and that once those two minor details were done, it was all over.

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**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-old-are-photons/555136/22 "2010-09-28T16:44:49Z")

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> [@Ring](#):
>
> Unfortunately for them, the _Photoelectric Effect_, the _Ultraviolate Catastrophe_ and the _electron not spiraling into the nucleus_ proved them wrong.

Apparently the role of the ultraviolet catastrophe in the early development of quantum mechanics has been overstated by many textbooks and histories of physics. I found [this article](http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/print/373) pretty informative (requires free sign-up)

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