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Re: Increasing Mass of Particles



I do not know general relativity so I may not know what I am asking and I
may not understand the answer, but I have to try. Is gravity a function
of an objects inertia or an objects mass? Or perhaps I should ask, is the
curvature of space determined by an objects inertia or its mass?

Joe D. Darling jdarling@emh1.otc.cc.mo.us
Instructor of Physics and Physical Science
Ozarks Technical Community College
1020 East Brower Springfield, MO 65802
(417) 895-7907 (417) 895-7085 FAX

The source of spacetime curvature (or more loosely, of gravity)
in general relativity is the energy-momentum tensor, a 4x4 "matrix",
if you will, with ten independent components (since it's symmetric).
The time-time component is the energy density, and the other components
are various momentum densities together with information about how
the energy and momentum are moving around.

This is to be contrasted with electromagnetism, where the source
is the current density four-vector, whose time component is the
charge density and whose space components are the current densities.

-dan