mfb: I'm sorry if I gave you the impression I was interested in the shape of photons. I could care less. I do care about the shape of a proton when it's accelerated. I agree that the positions and momenta of quarks in a proton cannot be predicted, but we know for sure that they stick together...
To mfb, cryo, vanhees71, and mathman,
Thank you all very much for responding to my questions. I'm a physics novice but rabid enthusiast. I would like to respond to each of you in this posting.
mfb: You say that protons have no shape. I interpret this to mean they don't have any nominal shape...
Cryo,
Great question. It's a way of asking the question "is length contraction real or just an observation which is IRF dependent. I think the jury is still out on that question. Personally, I fall on the reality side, but let me insert a snippet from the Wikipedia article on "length...
Mathman,
Possibility. I've heard tell that photons are 2 dimensional discs experiencing neither time or distance. Unfortunately, that implies that the proton becomes mass-less. Thanks for the feedback.
Neil
What affect does the phenomenon of "length contraction" have on the shape (e.g. spherical, rugby ball, barbell, donut) of protons accelerated to 0.999999991 c in the LHC?