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Re: What Hath Einstein Writ?

There are a few "modern physics" texts that refer to the "effective rest
mass" just in case we needed any further confusion on the matter. I've
never really been sure why they want to use the modifier effective.

m(eff)^2 = E^2 - P^2

Oh well!?


On Tue, 22 Feb 2000, Hugh Haskell wrote:

Ludwik Kowalski muttered under his breath:

And what will happen to the commonly used concept of
"binding energy" when the concept of the "rest mass" is
eliminated?

Nobody is advocating eliminating "rest mass" per se. Only that the
modifier "rest" is superfluous, so it can just be called "mass,"
which is, of course, related to the energy by E=(gamma)mc^2. The
concept of binding energy is safe.

Hugh


Hugh Haskell
<mailto://hhaskell@mindspring.com>

Let's face it. People use a Mac because they want to, Windows because they
have to..
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