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Re: electric charge



Hugh Haskell wrote:

What is mass? And how does it differ from charge? Is mass a substance
or is it a property of matter? Of course mass, as we use the term is
a bit more complex that charge, because there are two properties of
matter that we have given the name mass to. One is the Inertial mass
that we put with the acceleration term in NSL, and the other is
gravitational mass, which is the property of matter than responds to
the gravitational interaction (that these two seem to be the same
thing is, as far as I can tell, an accident of nature--others may
have different ideas on this), just as charge is the property of
matter that responds to the electromagnetic interaction. Are either
of them substances?

Well, at least we don't claim that mass can somehow detach itself from
the particles it describes and go wandering and zooming around all by
itself.

Maybe we could just define gravitational mass as whatever it is
that causes gravitational fields, and charge as whatever it is
that causes electromagnetic fields, and then we could argue about
what fields are.

From a strictly tidy-theoretical-foundation point of view, that might
not be a bad idea. Fields being photonic, and photons having none of
the troublesome properties like Q and B and L and m, your proposal gets
us past the particle/property handwaving scenario. Oops, dreaming again
:-)

Best wishes,

Larry

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Larry Cartwright <exit60@cablespeed.com>
Retired (June 2001) Physics Teacher
Charlotte MI 48813 USA
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~