Addressing Misconceptions

I understand the need to clarify the concepts and address the limitations of language in describing the perspective of photons within the framework of special relativity.

This is an attempt to refine the with a focus on precision and clarity:

Refined Explanation of Photons in Special Relativity

Photons are massless particles that travel at the speed of light in a vacuum. Because they are massless, they are not subject to the same limitations as objects with mass when it comes to acceleration and relativistic effects.

Relativistic Equations and Infinities**: l specifically those dealing with time dilation and length contraction, that is in the equations of special relativity, become undefined or infinite when applied to photons. This is because these equations include terms that involve dividing by zero or approaching infinity as the speed of light is reached.

In special relativity, reference frames are defined for objects with mass that move at sub-light speeds. For photons, there is no valid reference frame in which they are at rest. This is because, at the speed of light, space and time coordinates do not behave in a manner that allows for a coherent frame of reference. Hence, saying that photons "experience" time or space in the same way as massive objects do is incorrect [oai_citation:1,special relativity - Would time freeze if you could travel at the speed of light? - Physics Stack Exchange](https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/29082/would-time-freeze-if-you-could-travel-at-the-speed-of-light) [oai_citation:2,Does light experience time?](https://phys.org/news/2014-05-does-light-experience-time.html) [oai_citation:3,Why is time frozen from light's perspective? | Science Questions with Surprising Answers](https://www.wtamu.edu/~cbaird/sq/2014/11/03/why-is-time-frozen-from-lights-perspective/).

For massive objects moving close to the speed of light, time dilation and length contraction are significant but still finite. As these objects approach the speed of light, these effects become extreme, theoretically approaching infinity. Photons, always traveling at light speed, are described by these extreme limits, meaning they do not experience time passage or spatial distance in the conventional sense [oai_citation:4,What is it like to be a photon traveling at light speed? - Big Think](https://bigthink.com/hard-science/photon-experience-light-speed/).

The challenge is in the language used to describe these phenomena.

While it's tempting to anthropomorphize photons and discuss their "perspective," it’s more precise to say that in the mathematical model of special relativity, photons travel along null geodesics (paths in space where the interval is zero). This means that the spacetime interval for a photon's journey is zero, implying no elapsed time or distance from the photon's "viewpoint."

Instead of saying photons "experience" zero time or space, it’s more accurate to say that, within the framework of special relativity, the concepts of time and distance do not apply to photons in the same way they do to objects with mass. This is because the mathematical limits that describe a photon's travel result in values that are not physically meaningful (infinities) for massless particles [oai_citation:5,special relativity - Would time freeze if you could travel at the speed of light? - Physics Stack Exchange](https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/29082/would-time-freeze-if-you-could-travel-at-the-speed-of-light) [oai_citation:6,What is it like to be a photon traveling at light speed? - Big Think](https://bigthink.com/hard-science/photon-experience-light-speed/).

It’s important to understand that these descriptions are part of a theoretical framework that helps us predict and understand the behaviour of particles at high velocities. The actual "experience" of a photon is not something we can meaningfully describe because it falls outside the realm of our physical intuition (with respect to limitations of applying human-like experiences to massless particles traveling at light speed.) and the practical application of special relativity.