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By definition a massless particle has no rest mass therefore it can not take up any spacial volume. I think the confusion lies with calling something that is massless, a particle. This is because as soon as we hear particle we think "object" and objects have definite mass and volume. A photon is massless and sometimes people may refer to it as a particle of light. But in fact that is sort of a misnomer being that it really isn't a particle, though it has particle-like properties. If something is massless theorists have said that the object does not interact with the Higgs field, though gravitational effects are still felt by the photon, example: gravitational lensing.

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Q: How can a particle of matter be massless if the definition of matter is Anything that has mass and takes up space?
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Related questions

Is matter anything that takes up space and has mass?

True, Matter is anything that takes up space and has mass<3 However, physicists say that some particles of matter are massless, such as photons.


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True, Matter is anything that takes up space and has mass<3 However, physicists say that some particles of matter are massless, such as photons.


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It is not a good definition of matter because matter is anything that takes up space like for example chair, desk and a pencil takes up space but it does not matter if you can touch or pick up matter.


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