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What is Mass?
yet more modest questions by
Joseph_Sixpack
Corrections: June 19, 2006
Edits: June 10, 2006
Posted: June 8, 2006
Abstract: Mass has been understood in many ways. One way
of understanding mass is as simply a device by which the
cosmos uses to store energy.
Sort of like gasoline tanks, except that these mass tanks
contain the makings of, or a repository of, energy.
Dare i say, pure energy...?
(okay smarty joe, just what is impure energy...? dumkopf!
It would seem possible to, under the proper conditions, to
disassemble mass, and allow its reconversion to pure energy.
When the energy runs down, the mass runs down.
simple.
alas that implies entropy exists?
Not so fast there joe, mass and energy hasn't run anywhere,
it has just been converted from one 'form' to 'another form'
so far we haven't measured any losses...
well, maybe energy, er... mass, doesn't run down...
if it doesn't, then entropy doesn't exist.
if it does then entropy exists.
clear as mud, right?
Quantum Nothing
So movement of
some sort of tiny stuff
generates or creates
some sort of tiny field
that is sort of like a bar magnet
with a repulse end
and
an attract end,
except it may not be exactly magnetic
it seems at this point.
that we need to add some salt...
for a better tasting concept.
Movement is/might be the same as energy because movement
creates energy. So mass is really just movement of stuff
inside some sort of thingy that creates, or that sets up,
some sort of field(s) that seem like mass.
duh....
Okay, so now we have, "mass is moving stuff".
sigh...
This 'mass' stuff is harder than it looks. all you end up
with is circular arguments and concepts... hardly any help
at all...
Okay, back to square one... e=mc2
Actually, e= +/- mc2.
What do you wanna do with the minus part?
Okay, (for the third time) what is energy then, if we can't
figure out what mass is? Certainly we know what energy
is... what energy actually is and not just a mathematical
definition of work within some reference framework.
this is getting nowhere fast...
Equilibrium anyone?
This would appear to lead to a prospective hypothetical
hypothesis (how's that for vagueness?) that there might be
some sort of a mass-energy equilibrium within the cosmos
itself.
That is, the universe stores some energy as mass and some
mass as mass and some energy as energy and some mass as
energy. Does that make any sense at all? Oh well, i hope
you get the idea.
Let's try that again...
Given a handfull of dandelions, how much energy is stored
there within, and how much evergy could they release if
their entire existing mass was somehow converted to energy.
Like a dumb dog chasing its tail, joseph_sixpack has to ask
the question; then what is energy...?
What is energy EXACTLY ?
What is an energy, for example, as a plama in our sun?
Noooooo... plasma is mass. energy is energy.
Does energy exist in a gravity wave?
Did you say yes?
ahah! got you! if a gravity wave contains energy thingys
that distort spacetime then it must have mass. Therefore
are you saying fields have mass? Or are you saying gravity
waves aren't fields and don't contain mass or energy? If
they don't have mass and therefore the ability to warp
spacetime, how can they act to stretch anything they pass
over?
Excuse me, i am hearing the sound of rice krispies inside my
head. i have to stop for a while...
The While whizzes by...
Does energy exist in a gravity wave as it pulls and distorts
everything that it passes over?
What power allows a single photon to phot millions of light
years?
What power allows a single photon to travel a single yard?
Take any single visible object; how and why does light
bounce off of it? Photons bounce off the moon from the sun
and travel all the way to the earth. Four people in four
parts of the country see the same moon as the photons boing
against their eyes. How does it do that?
How and why does it do that? What is there in photons that
allow or make them bounce against an untouched target?
Again and again, how far can a photon phot?
How can a joe crustacean ever understand such things?
The history of a candle
Let's get a log and some term papers and a match.
Now what we have here is mass. bonk your teacher over the
head with the mass of the term papers. Do not use the log!
Your teacher will tell you where to put your term papers.
Okay now light up the mass of the term papers to burning
with the match and set the mass of the log to burning. What
is coming off is energy. Well, and some CO2 and
water. But the heat and light is the energy part. Notice
how warm the room gets from the infrared radiation when the
desks catch fire and start burning too. That is the
infrared energy part. Notice the bright shiny light of red,
yellow, violet and white. That is the higher energy
radiation that the mass was kind enough to release. Most of
the energy from the log was just chemically 'oxidized' into
carbon dioxide and water plus some other nitrogen compounds
and gases but there was some real generation of energy
release.. Now, gather it all the energy up and weigh it.
Well, that is about as far as we can go with our mass-energy
experiment for now until the fire department arrives.
As the new scientists of the world, let me know when you
figure out what mass really is and what energy really is;
never mind the stupid definitions, what is it!? because i
sure as hell don't know...
Start small. What is a single proton? Or what is whatever
it is that makes up a single proton.
What's an electron? what's a photon? What's a neutrino?
Just what the hell is it? never mind what it does, or how
it acts, or how much mass it has. What is it? Take a
geometric approach, if you come up with something, feed some
to your dog and see if he likes it then let me know.
What is mass?
Max Jammer's book is good, if not great:
"Concepts of MASS in contemporary physics and philosophy"
Princeton University Press copyright in 2000
ISBN 0-691-01017-X
Have aspirin handy.
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