🚀 go-pugleaf

Chris Wagner wrote:
> 
> James Grady Ward wrote:
> > >     It is interesting to note that neutrino's travel at 1.0c
> > > irrespective of the material, and so break the local speed of light. The
> > > particle will emit an EM radiation known as Cerenkov Radiation.
> >
> > it has not been verified yet if neutrinos are actually massless yet,
> > but if they are yes they would travel at c through just about anything.
> 
> If neutrinos were massless then they'ld be photons.  All radiations
> (photons, beta, alpha, missles, baseballs, etc) obey the dual particle/
> wave nature of matter.  The wavelength is dependent on the velocity
> and the mass.  When the mass term is zero, you have a photon.
> Increasing
> the mass decreases the wavelength.  Thats why Intel invented heavy ion
> lithography to replace the current X-ray lithography.  They can make
> smaller transitors.  Anyway, only massless particles can travel at c,
> and the only massless particle is the photon, according to the equation.

     Although there is no direct proof that neutrinos have zero mass, it
is commonly accepted that they are massless. The point you have raised
(about particle/wave duality) is not really relevant, because when we
talk about 'mass', we always mean 'rest mass'. Obviously any particle
that is in motion will have an attached momentum, energy, mass,
wavelegth etc. The important issue is that there are 4 known particles
with zero rest mass. 

* The Photon
* The Electronic Neutrino
* The Muonic Neutrino
* The Tauonic Neutrino

    If anyone else can think of some others, I'd be keen to know.

    Now the photon and the 3 neutrinos have markedly different
properties. Photons have an intrinsic spin of 1, which means they behave
as bosons. Neutrinos have spin of 1/2, meaning they are fermions,
although they interact very weakly with other particles. This is why
they can disobey the speed limit of light.


    As a final note, the mass of the neutrino is of great cosmological
importance. If it could be shown that the neutrino had even a tiny mass,
this would account for the "hidden mass" in the Universe.


	Regards,
	 Chris.