At 09:25 PM 4/7/01 -0400, Robert B Zannelli speculated about the
relationship between electrostatic mass and radiation resistance:
Radiation resistance looks like inertia but it's not due to gravity at all.
Let's be careful. I see essentially *no* connection between the electron's
mass and its radiation resistance.
Suppose we boost a charged object from velocity (v) to (v + delta_v), using
an acceleration that is uniform over some time interval (delta_t). Let's
consider (delta_t) to be adjustable while keeping (v), (delta_v), (m), and
(q) fixed.
-- We must impart to the object a certain amount of kinetic energy; this
amount is *independent* of (delta_t).
-- We must also provide enough energy to overcome the radiation
resistance, but this scales like (1/delta_t) so it can be made arbitrarily
small by spreading the acceleration over a sufficiently long time.