The property of an object that determines how much it responds to a force in Newtonian mechanics, and how much it interacts with gravity in the Newtonian framework. Mass also refers to the intrinsic energy of a particle in particle physics.
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How does a particle of light reach the max speed of light? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
How can a photon have no mass and still travel at the speed of light?
First of all I am not a professional physicist. I was curious as to how a particle of light can ...
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6answers
1k views
What does it mean to say that mass “approaches infinity”?
What does it mean to say that mass "approaches infinity"?
I have read that mass of a body increases with the speed and when the body reaches the speed of light, the mass becomes infinity.
What ...
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2answers
257 views
Will physic object in a perfect environment last/exist forever?
We know,i.e. wood/steel tables in earth will completely broken or disappear in a very future day.
If we put the table in a perfect/ideal environment (maybe in vacuum), will the disappear/broken still ...
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3answers
294 views
Could a bubble of photons make a spaceship massless?
I'm not sure how theoretically possible this is but my question is...
If we could somehow make a perfect bubble of photons (a massless bubble) and put a spaceship inside it, could it therefore ...
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3answers
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What defines the mass of elementary particle?
The electron is particle.
The mass of electron is $9.10938215(45)\times 10^{−31}\, {\rm kg}$.
But why is the mass exactly what it is?
What in physics defines the mass of elementary particle?
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2answers
701 views
Does $E = mc^2$ apply to photons?
Photons are massless, but if $m = 0$ and $E = mc^2$ then $E = 0c^2 = 0$. This would say that photons have no energy, which is not true.
However, given the formula $E = ℎf$, a photon does have energy ...
3
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1answer
205 views
Why should the mass of leptons to be near of proton and QCD/chiral scales?
The mistery of the mass of the top being in the electroweak scale can be justified by the Higgs mechanism itself; in some sense the top mass is the only "natural" mass, the other masses of fermions ...
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5answers
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Why can't photons have a mass
Why can't photons have a mass? Could you explain this to me in a short and mathematical way?
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2answers
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Do light and sound waves have mass
I have been reading Hawking's 'A Brief History of Time' and it has gotten me thinking about Einstein's theory of relativity, in that it assumes that an object must have infinite mass if it is to be ...
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7answers
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Why do we have an elementary charge but no elementary mass?
Why do we have an elementary charge $e$ in physics but no elementary mass? Is an elementary mass ruled out by experiment or is an elementary mass forbidden by some theoretical reason?
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7answers
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How can a photon have no mass and still travel at the speed of light?
I've read a number of the helpful Q&As on photons that mention the mass/mass-less issue. Do I understand correctly that the idea of mass-less (a rest mass of 0) may be just a convention to make ...
42
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9answers
7k views
Don't heavier objects actually fall faster because they exert their own gravity?
The common understanding is that, setting air resistance aside, all objects dropped to Earth fall at the same rate. This is often demonstrated through the thought experiment of cutting a large object ...
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2answers
687 views
The contribution to mass from the dynamical breaking of chiral symmetry
The claim is often made that the discovery of the Higgs boson will give us information about the origin of mass. However, the bare masses of the up and down quarks are only around 5 MeV, quite a bit ...
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6answers
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What is the symmetry which is responsible for conservation of mass?
According to Noether's theorem, all conservation laws originate from invariance of a system to shifts in a certain space. For example conservation of energy stems from invariance to time translation.
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14answers
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How Does Mass Leave the Body When you Lose Weight?
When your body burns calories and you lose weight, obviously mass is leaving your body. In what form does it leave? In other words, what is the physical process by which the body loses weight when ...
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2answers
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Mass of particle near light speed in a medium
I am trying to get a common understanding from these two previous questions:
Why does the mass of an object increase when its speed approaches that of light?
What happens if light/particles exceeded ...
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3answers
1k views
Where does matter come from?
I admit, it's been a few years since I've studied physics, but the following question came to me when I was listening to a talk by Lawrence Krauss.
Is there any knowledge of from where matter that ...
23
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8answers
13k views
If photons have no mass, how can they have momentum?
As an explanation of why a large gravitational field (such as a black hole) can bend light, I have heard that light has momentum. This is given as a solution to the problem of only massive objects ...
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10answers
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Does 'electricity' have mass? Is 'electricity' tangible?
Background: I'm in a legal academic discussion about the status of electronic 'goods' and whether they qualify as 'goods' in the same way a chair and a pen do. In this context (and specifically at the ...
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0answers
2k views
What's the relationship between mass and time? [closed]
[This question has arisen from a wish to understand an end-of-universe scenario: heat death]
Are time and mass intrinsically linked?
If so, does time "run slower" (whatever that may mean) in a ...
6
votes
2answers
186 views
Why did this glass start popping?
I remember a while ago my father dropped a glass lid and it smashed. It looked something like this. When that happened, for about 5 minutes afterwards, the glass parts were splitting, kind of like ...
12
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3answers
1k views
If the universe were compressed into a super massive black hole, how big would it be?
I understand only a little of general relativity, but that's why I'm here! :)
Consider the hypothetical situation of some extra-terrestrial intelligence pushing all the mass in the universe, every ...
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5answers
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Do photons gain mass when they travel through glass?
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that photons slow down when travelling through glass. Does this mean they gain mass? Otherwise, what happens to extra kinetic energy?
I understand now ...
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9answers
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Why does the mass of an object increase when its speed approaches that of light?
I'm reading Nano: The Essentials by T. Pradeep and I came upon this statement in the section explaining the basics of scanning electron microscopy.
However, the equation breaks down when the ...
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4answers
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Finding the volume of this irregular shape I have
I have an approximately basketball-sized non-hollow piece of aluminum sitting in my house that is of irregular shape. I need to find the volume of it for a very legitimate yet irrelevant reason.
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16
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7answers
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Is mass quantized?
I learned today in class that photons and light are quantized. I also remember that electric charge is quantized as well. I was thinking about these implications, and I was wondering if mass was ...
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3answers
350 views
What's with the very slightly larger mass of the neutron compared to the proton?
Neutron mass: 1.008664 u
Proton mass: 1.007276 u
Why the discrepancy?
On a related note, how does one go about measuring the mass of a neutron or proton, anyway?
