On 30 Sep 1999 09:44:34 -0400, Nieminen Juha wrote:
>  When light travels through matter (for example water), it travels at a
>speed which is less than c. Because of this, the factor 1/sqrt(1-v*v/c*c)
>gets a non-infinite value, which multiplied with the rest mass of the
>light gives us 0. This would mean that the energy of the light travelling
>through water would be 0.
>  How is this possible?

The explanation I always got is that the photon is being absorbed and
re-emitted each time it hits a water molecule, but it is traveling at
c in the interstices between molecules.

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