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[Phys-l] E=mc^2: On the use of "experts" testimony



I suspect that relativistic mass is a temptation that even the "stars"
find hard to resist when trying to give an easy heuristic, quick and
dirty, explanation to non-experts.

So even though one may find references to rel. mass in many places in
the "lay" media from these stars; I'd find it more interesting if not
convincing to know what they really do in their research papers, or
perhaps in their discussions in the hallway with other knowledgable
colleagues.

|
| Those referees who are in favor of "mass" may find Oas' paper
| possibly "dangerous". It may undermine one of their most
| powerful reasons: "relativistic mass" is obsolete, out of
| fashion, and no longer in use.
|
| On the Contrary, 477 out of 637 works still relied upon the
| concept of "relativistic mass". This may sanction the public
| to promote the use of "relativistic mass". The fact is: Oas'
| effort is still limited. There are many books, textbooks and
| journals from other countries such as Britain, France, China
| etc still adopt "relativistic mass". (Does Oas know about this fact?)
|
| Nobel laureate Gerard 't Hooft explains that "Mass and energy
| in this theory also depend on velocity" and "Modern physics
| teachers prefer to redefine mass such that it is velocity
| independent." This also undermines the position of those who
| are in favor of "mass". Textbooks from Belgium may follow
| Hooft's position. Veltman, another Nobel laureate, also
| explain how mass increase with speed... Textbooks from
| Netherlands may also follow Veltman's position?
|
| Back in 1964, Feynman was surprised that relativistic mass
| was rarely used within his community, however he still
| introduced it in "The Feynman Lectures". With many other
| Nobel laureates, Stephen Hawking (and many others mentioned
| in Oas's paper) introducing this concept in many other
| writings, one would expect the use of "relativistic mass" to
| continue for many more years.
|