Light is Heavy
History and Philosophy of Physics
2015-08-27 v1 Classical Physics
Abstract
Einstein's relativity theory appears to be very accurate, but at times equally puzzling. On the one hand, electromagnetic radiation must have zero rest mass in order to propagate at the speed of light, but on the other hand, since it definitely carries momentum and energy, it has non-zero inertial mass. Hence, by the principle of equivalence, it must have non-zero gravitational mass, and so, light must be heavy. In this paper, no new results will be derived, but a possibly surprising perspective on the above paradox is given.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1508.06478,
title = {Light is Heavy},
author = {M. B. van der Mark and G. W. 't Hooft},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1508.06478},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
6 pages, 2 figures. Originally writen as a contribution to the 25th aniversary of the "Sectie Atoomfysica en Quantum Electronica" of the Dutch Physical Society (NNV). in Van A tot Q, NNV, The Netherlands, November 2000