🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1993Jan25.044246.16642@zip.eecs.umich.edu>, 
monkey@quip.eecs.umich.edu (Monkey King) writes:

|> Here is a physics question: when an electron in a atom radiates, which
|> particle loses mass -- the electron or the nucleus or both?  For example,
|> suppose a proton and an electron at rest, initially unbound, the total mass
|> is M = Mp + Me, where Mp and Me are rest mass of the particles, respectively.
|> The electron then combines with the proton to form a hydrogen atom in the
|> ground state, losing 13.6 eV in the form of radiation.  The total mass of the
|> two particles is now M - 13.6 eV.  Now the question is which particle is
|> lighter than before?   And why? Can you say here that you can't ask such a
|> question because you have to treat the atom as a single entity?  This
|> quesiton is relevant to Bollinger's argument about the electron becoming
|> lighter and lighter when it falls thru the basement to become a hydrino.  I
|> hope experts in this group can give a serious answer to my question (Blue,
|> Carr, Jones, are you listening?).  

	Even though I am not one of the above mentioned . . . the correct 
answer is that neither loses mass.  The rest mass of the system in its initial 
state is M.  The rest mass of the final state (hydrogen + photon(s)) is 
also M (conservation of rest mass is guarenteed by the seperate conservation 
of momentum and energy); the rest mass of the hydrogen atom is smaller than 
that of the system as a whole.  The masses of the electron and proton do 
not change (unless of course they decay, which would be novel).  

-- 
Steve Schaffner        sschaff@unixhub.slac.stanford.edu
	The opinions expressed may be mine, and may not be those of SLAC, 
Stanford University, or the DOE.