Exactly, although I believe with the latest vacuum fluctuation
theories that drag turns out to have the characteristics of
inertia. Anyway - its not my theory - I've only read the New Scientist
article about it.
Cheers
Brent Meeker wrote:
>
> That's an old idea. The problem is that the radiation field isn't
> covariant...it would produce drag as well as attraction.
>
> Brent Meeker
>
> On 03-Apr-01, Russell Standish wrote:
> > George Levy wrote:
> >>
> >> I settled for the gold atom as the unit for the prize. However, I
> >> found myself facing the puzzle of why does the gold atom (or even the
> >> proton) have its own particular mass which in fact resolved the mass
> >> frequency indeterminacy I was grappling with earlier.
> >>
> >> George
> >>
> >
> > Ah yes... The answer to this question may well net you a Nobel prize.
> > I believe that answer can be computed from the standard model provided
> > one takes the measured values for proton and neutron masses as given,
> > but that these masses are still somewhat of a mystery. Perhaps Higgs
> > will do it. Perhaps vacuum fluctuations will do it (see recent New
> > Scientist article). On the latter subject, I remember one of my
> > costudents when I was studying Physics actually suggested to me that
> > mass might come about from blocking some form of radiation. I did the
> > back of the envelope calculation at the time, and derived the usual
> > Newtonian law of gravitation for two spheres of the same density, but
> > didn't take it any further because of how crazy the idea sounded. Of
> > course that was sometime before I'd even heard of vacuum fluctuations!
> >
> > Cheers
> >
> >
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > Dr. Russell Standish Director High Performance Computing Support Unit,
> > Phone 9385 6967 UNSW SYDNEY 2052 Fax 9385 6965 Australia
> > R.Standish.domain.name.hidden Room 2075, Red Centre
> > http://parallel.hpc.unsw.edu.au/rks
> >
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> Regards
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Russell Standish Director
High Performance Computing Support Unit, Phone 9385 6967
UNSW SYDNEY 2052 Fax 9385 6965
Australia R.Standish.domain.name.hidden
Room 2075, Red Centre
http://parallel.hpc.unsw.edu.au/rks
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Received on Tue Apr 03 2001 - 21:32:11 PDT