OK...lately i've been thinking a lot about photons, and questioning their very basic and fundemental properties. I am looking to finally grasp the concept of photons. Can someone with knowledge in this area help me out please?
Im asking these questions, so there must be some other people that are asking the same questions...HELP US OUT PLEASE Oh and dont mind if im asking stupid questions, as i dont have much knowledge in this area

Here it goes

1. Photons are real particles right?
As in INDIVIDUAL photons DO exist
Is it a physical particle? I know its supposed to be energy, but in that case - what IS energy?

2. Photons have momentum, but occupy no volume and have no mass
Could it be possible that they DO have mass...just very very little? undetectable? Othervise how are they individual particles at all? once again what is energy?

3. Photon spin?
I know nothing about this, so please explain

4. Photons do not decay
So basically all photons created during and after the big bang (assuming it happened) still exist today (im not sure about this one, becasue i know photons can get absorbed, but then dont they get re-released again, just at a different wavelength?)

5. Moving a photon trough something extremely thick/cold?
I asked this one before, but what about an extremely high energy photon..how do those types of photons travel throuh matter?

6. Do photons created at the center of the Earth ever see the "light of day" meaning ever reach the surface and beyond?
Kind of related to question 5

7. Distinguishing photons?
It is impossible to distinguish between individual photons right, except their wavelength, but photons of the exact same wavelength are indistinguishable? is this correct?

8. Photons deviating when travelling great distances?
When a photon gets created, in some galaxy on the other side of the universe, and we observe it...does or did that photon ever change its cource?
That is to say, does a photon ALWAYS travel in a straight line? (this is assuming there are no gravitational forces acting on the photon) I ask becasue they travel in waves...read below

9. Photons travelling in waves
Photons travel in a wave-like fashion. Is this correct? im not referring to the wave function. What i mean is do photons actually have a peak and a trough. Do these photons go "up and down" aswell as travel at the speed of light in a particular direction?

10. 3d waves?
If #7 is correct, then do these photons "bounce around" within their wavelength?
What i mean is this - You can picture a hypthetical hollow tube in which these photons "bounce around" at their wavelength in all directions, while travelling. Would this be a more accurate description?
And back to #8, would this "bouncing around" affect the path of the photon (assuming the above is remotely correct)

11. The energy of a photon depends on its wavelength
So once again, what exactly is energy, if it is determined simply by the wavelength of a photon?

12. Whats the distance between photons?
According to antonisebs calculation, there are 1.2x10^13 photons per cubic meter of daylight at any one time, not per soecond.
Im assuming that number is smaller, but not significantly smalled out in a remote region of space. Would that be a correct asumption?
Also, that calculation is for photons emitted from from the sun, what about all of the other photons released from other stars, galaxies, this planet, they also must be there. As in we should add all of the other potential photons that are technically there, not just from our sun (basically he number should be greater?)..i dont know if that made sence...

13. Photons as a ether?
With that many photons per square cubic meter, do the math for square millimeter for a better picture - THATS A LOT OF PHOTONS!! at any one time in a millimeter cubed of space
Is it safe to say, that everything in the universe is in an "ocean" of photons? As in we are just floating in this stuff. (as well as gravitons among other things, but ill leave those for another thread )

14. Photon to photon interaction
With that many photons existing in such a small space, there ought to be some kind of interaction between photons, especially that these photons come from ALL directions..literally
I think it was Ken G that said that photons dont actually collide, but "pair up", and then split up ...this appears as a collision though, but its really not? please explain... if they are not a physical thing, what interacts with what? why would they NOT come in contact with eachother?
So they DONT actually collide, right? and they cannot occupy the same space..is that also correct or no?

15. Photon to matter interaction
When we say a photon hits a physicl object like a keyboard...or a mirror, does it come in contact with whatever it hits? I dont understand this becasue a photon is not a physical thing, so how does it "bounce off" of things? When we type and hit the buttons on our keyboard, the molecules from our fingers dont actually come in physical contact with the molecules making up the keyboard right? but thats matter and electrons are responsible for that.....what about photons though?

16. E=mc^2
So if E=mc^2, and photons ARE energy, does that mean, that if we cram enough photons into a small space, that they will become matter? But i though photons have no mass or volume? How could this be?

17. So why am i asking all of this? I had an interesting view of the universe...
I recently pictured the universe in a very srange way..hard to describe, but here it goes. Dont mind this part, becasue its something that should be in the ATM forum perhaps
Color as we know it does not really exist...its just something that our human, earthly eyes see or "pick up". I guess its easier to start thinking of the room you are in with ABSOLUTELY NO PHOTONS...you see what i mean...everything is colorless, the same, indistinguishable, black...Now this is the tough part...Pretend you cant see the objects in your room, but you KNOW where they are...Now keep that same colorlessness when we add photons(pretend you know where they are aswell)...track these photons mentally (obviously not ALL of them, just a few) What do you get? Think of the example where a tree falls in a forest and noone is tehre to see it..just a room where photons(energy) are bouncing around, getting absorbed, being released again..this is the world we live in? You can extend that though of colorlessness to our solar system, galaxy, cluster, and the universe...all in a "ocean" of these photons...but wait a second....E=mc^2, so energy is bouncing off enery?...for the third time..what is energy? i certainly dont know, which is why i made this post in the first place...

Cheers