🚀 go-pugleaf

On Wed, 07 Jan 2009 21:26:43 -0800, "Paul Hovnanian P.E." <paul@hovnanian.com> wrote:

>"mpc755@gmail.com" wrote:
>> 
>> On Jan 5, 9:43 pm, "Paul Hovnanian P.E." <p...@hovnanian.com> wrote:
>> > "mpc...@gmail.com" wrote:
>> >
>> > [snip]
>> >
>> > > Bullets have mass. How does a massless particle travel through a void?
>> >
>> > > It doesn't. It requires a medium and the medium is aether.
>> >
>> > What does having/not having mass have to do with traveling/not traveling
>> > through a void?
>> >
>> > --
>> > Paul Hovnanian     mailto:P...@Hovnanian.com
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------------
>> > Deja fubar: The feeling that you've made the same mistake before.
>> 
>> To me, there are only two ways for something to have momentum:
>> 
>> 1. The object has mass and can have momentum and since it has mass it
>> can exist on its own and does not require a medium in order for it to
>> maintain its momentum.
>> 2. The object is a wave, or a burst, that travels through a medium.
>
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Momentum#Momentum_in_electromagnetism
> 
>> How can something without mass exist in a void (i.e. exist in
>> nothing), let alone travel through it?
>
>What is mass? You might think you know, in the classical physics sense.
>But until you can explain what it is, its your job to answer the
>question 'how can something have mass'. Void or no void.

Mass is the quantity of matter which is determined from its weight
(gravitational mass), or, from Newton's second law (inertial mass), 
i.e. related to the definitions of force and acceleration.  Hence it 
defines both the concepts of inertia and gravity.

It may not be a fundamental property, but, instead, a by-product of
simple changes states of momentum of the quantum entities we conceive
of as 'matter'.