Re: mass versus radiation resistance

["John S. Denker" <jsd@MONMOUTH.COM>]

At 09:40 PM 4/8/01 -0400, Robert B Zannelli wrote:
> Doesn't radiation resistance "store" energy of motion in a similar way
> that inertia does for particles in motion.

No.

The most important distinction can be seen by considering a particle that
accelerates, waits a while, and then decelerates.

 1a) You dissipate energy via radiation resistance during the acceleration.
 1d) You dissipate *additional* energy via radiation resistance during the
deceleration.

 2a) You impart kinetic energy to the particle during the acceleration.
 2d) You get this energy back out during the deceleration.

This is a rather spectacular distinction.

======

My previous remarks about other distinctions remain valid.  The radiation
resistance and the kinetic energy obey markedly different scaling laws as a
function of timescale.