🚀 go-pugleaf

On Fri, 18 Apr 1997, Yousuf Khan wrote:

> On Thu, 17 Apr 1997 16:28:29 GMT, Dries van Oosten <dvoosten@fys.ruu.nl>
> wrote:
> 
> >> Does this mean that if I manage to get a pebble to very near light
> >> speed, it will start acting like a rather large gravity well?
> 
> >IMHO it does and that's why I don't like the statement that mass increases
> >with speed. Momentum is just not a linear function of velocity, the mass
> >doesn't change. If it would, what you say would have to be true and what
> >you say can't be true since this would mean that light (moving at c) would
> >see all masses infinitely large. This would mean that all masses would
> >"attract" light with the same strength. This is absurd. Every object would
> >be a black hole. Correct me if I make a mistake here, but this is how I
> >see it.
> 
> Rest mass always stays the same no matter what speed you go at. It's only
> the relative mass that seems to increase. Relative mass is a virtual
> quantity, but the rest mass is the true mass.
> 
> 					Yousuf Khan

I know, but the relative mass is what another particle sees and reacts
upon, so where your statement is correct, it doesn't really help me out.
I think we should drop the concept of relative mass and accept that
momentum, energy ,etc are more complex function of velocity that we
thought. Richard Feynman says in the Feynman lectures that by replacing
the mass with m/sqrt(1-v^2/c^2) we can make a correction on classical
mechanics.                                    ^^^^^^^^^^
But he states clearly that this is only an aproximation. So there is at
least one famous physicist who agrees with me. Now don't get me wrong, I
don't mean to say that when feynman says it, it must be true. I just
thought that maybe you would appreciate his opinion more than mine :-)




> --
> Yousuf J. Khan
> Ottawa, Ont, Canada
> Nation's capital
> for email, remove the "!" from my address
> 
> 
> 


Dries van Oosten

Eat any good books lately?