What is Light anyway?

Light is an example of an electromagnetic field, a field whose carrier particle is the photon. Gravity is a field whose carrier particle is the graviton. In the same way, and generally:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_carrier

Quote: "In particle physics, quantum field theories such as the Standard Model describe nature in terms of fields. Each field has a complementary description as the set of particles of a particular type. A force between two particles can be described either as the action of a force field generated by one particle on the other, or in terms of the exchange of virtual force carrier particles between them."

And to think --we could learn this in school along with who was president in 1801. The latter is interesting and useful, but the former is very, very interesting and useful.

When I was in school (long ago), at age 12 I wanted to know what made lenses work. I had a bunch of lenses and I was building little microscopes and telescopes, but I wanted to know how glass bent light. No one could tell me. They could tell me who was president in 1801, but nothing scientific or interesting.

Much later I learned that lenses bend light by slowing it down -- the thick part of the lens slows the light more than the edges, and this makes the light converge to a point. How hard is that?

http://arachnoid.com/example/index.html#Lens_Example