- #1
johne1618
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Hi,
What do you think of this thought experiment that demonstates a situation where the origin of inertia must be gravitational (Mach's Principle)?
Imagine an empty box with perfect mirrors on its walls.
Now let us pump in a large amount of photons into the box.
Let us assume that the combined mass/energy of the photons is much greater that the mass of the box itself so we can neglect the mass of the box.
Do the confined photons have an inertial mass?
If we apply a force to the box does the box apply an inertial reaction force back proportional to the mass/energy of the photons?
I believe it does.
So where does this inertial force come from?
Apart from elastic scattering from electrons in the walls the only other interaction the photons engage in is gravitational. In particular the photons do not interact with a Higgs field or a zero-point electromagnetic field.
Thus the inertial reaction force can only be due to gravitational interaction with the rest of the Universe.
Now the question is: what type of gravitational interaction?
If we assume an analogy with Electromagnetism then there are two types of gravitational interaction: a static attractive force or acceleration-induced radiation. It seems the latter fits the bill nicely especially if one allows advanced waves so that the resulting inertial reaction force appears instantaneously as it should.
John
What do you think of this thought experiment that demonstates a situation where the origin of inertia must be gravitational (Mach's Principle)?
Imagine an empty box with perfect mirrors on its walls.
Now let us pump in a large amount of photons into the box.
Let us assume that the combined mass/energy of the photons is much greater that the mass of the box itself so we can neglect the mass of the box.
Do the confined photons have an inertial mass?
If we apply a force to the box does the box apply an inertial reaction force back proportional to the mass/energy of the photons?
I believe it does.
So where does this inertial force come from?
Apart from elastic scattering from electrons in the walls the only other interaction the photons engage in is gravitational. In particular the photons do not interact with a Higgs field or a zero-point electromagnetic field.
Thus the inertial reaction force can only be due to gravitational interaction with the rest of the Universe.
Now the question is: what type of gravitational interaction?
If we assume an analogy with Electromagnetism then there are two types of gravitational interaction: a static attractive force or acceleration-induced radiation. It seems the latter fits the bill nicely especially if one allows advanced waves so that the resulting inertial reaction force appears instantaneously as it should.
John
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