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General Science / Re: How can photons have momentum but no mass?
« on: 20/10/2021 00:28:27 »
Hi and especially @Colin2B ,
What you've said about relativistic mass seems reasonable. It's also more history than I was aware of and I haven't checked all the details but I'm quite happy to accept what you said.
The original statement probably should be re-phrased:
The spirit of what was originally stated does (hopefully) remain intact: Relativistic mass does help to maintain some relativistic analogues of equations and concepts from Newtonian mechanics. In particular, a massless particle having momentum does seem strange starting from Newtonian definitions of momentum and using "Relativistic mass" does help to maintain a facade of Newtonian-like concepts.
(I've also edited the earlier post to include a **Footnote** to prevent the paragraph being taken as a literal account of any historical development of the term "relativistic mass").
Best Wishes.
What you've said about relativistic mass seems reasonable. It's also more history than I was aware of and I haven't checked all the details but I'm quite happy to accept what you said.
The original statement probably should be re-phrased:
Physicist's were sufficiently determined to maintain this simple concept of momentum that theyFor certain, Relativistic mass was developed as a concept for several reasons and not specifically because there was an issue with photons having momentum.developedhad a good reason to cling on to a quantity called "relativistic mass".
The spirit of what was originally stated does (hopefully) remain intact: Relativistic mass does help to maintain some relativistic analogues of equations and concepts from Newtonian mechanics. In particular, a massless particle having momentum does seem strange starting from Newtonian definitions of momentum and using "Relativistic mass" does help to maintain a facade of Newtonian-like concepts.
(I've also edited the earlier post to include a **Footnote** to prevent the paragraph being taken as a literal account of any historical development of the term "relativistic mass").
Best Wishes.