Re: Question About Charged Particles.

[Jim Green <JMGreen@SISNA.COM>]

>         A question came up on another list concerning the possibility of a
> charged particle having a zero rest mass. It would seem that this would be
> impossible for several reasons, the most obvious being, that there is an
> electromagnetic mass associated with a charged particle.  Also Gluons are
> believed to have zero rest mass even though they carry a color charge, plus
> neutrinos carry a weak charge and were once thought to be massless.

Folks, I am confused - my common state here on this list:

The question seems to be about a "charged particle" -- presumably this
refers to an electrical charge.  No one yet has given a helpful answer, but
the conversation instead has drifted to "color charge" and "weak charge".

What on Earth have electrical charge and color charge and weak charge have
to do with each other???  What give rise to comparisons between color and
Coulomb -- other than at some point some odd fellow (or lady, I don't
remember) used the English word "charge" for all three cases?  Isn't this
discussion just complicated by physics cuteness?



Jim Green
mailto:JMGreen@sisna.com
http://users.sisna.com/jmgreen