Timeline for Does the mass of a body absorbing photons increase?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
6 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 11, 2012 at 15:11 | vote | accept | Matt Fenwick | ||
| May 17, 2012 at 12:13 | comment | added | AdamRedwine | As to whether this mass is "rest mass," that kind of depends on what happens to the photon. You claim that the photon was "absorbed." Okay, how? Say you have a scintillating gamma detector; in that case, the photon looses its energy via the photoelectric effect. There might be some change in rest mass, depending on the binding energies of the affected atom before and after interaction, but most of the energy will eventually become heat. This still represents an increase in mass, and it is still gravitational though. | |
| May 17, 2012 at 12:05 | comment | added | AdamRedwine | I think you are confusing a couple of different mass concepts. There is a difference between rest mass and mass as measured in a non-inertial frame but all kinds of mass are gravitational. There is theortically the potential that gravitational mass and inertial mass are different, but this has been tested to very high degrees and found not to be the case. | |
| May 16, 2012 at 13:46 | comment | added | Matt Fenwick | Or is this an increase in gravitational mass? | |
| May 16, 2012 at 12:52 | comment | added | Matt Fenwick | Is this an increase in rest mass? I'm actually not sure which mass the equation I gave is referring to. | |
| May 15, 2012 at 20:31 | history | answered | AdamRedwine | CC BY-SA 3.0 |