Recent content by Francis Ward

I was not aware I had surmised as such and mentioned no tables. The apparent thrust was not that either. Probably best to quit now as the discussion is not a discussion and is fruitless

I did not say anyone was disagreeing with it. I was clarifying the confusing way I had written my earlier post. Where did the bullet come in?

No, I am saying that an object inside a car that is traveling at speed, has no greater energy than an object sitting in a car that is not traveling at speed relative to the objects frame of reference, which is the car

Relativistic mass is just a rescaling of an object's energy by a factor c2 So it cannot be measured? And an object inside a vehicle traveling at speed has no increased energy over an object at rest, relative to it's frame of reference?

Can relativistic mass be measured? Why is concept of relativistic mass not used?

So, to explain why I raised this question in the first place. I am not a physicist (you all fall back in amazement at that revelation - not). I read books by physicists (currently Max Tegmark - Mathmatical Universe) and I find myself questioning so much that is taken for granted. Not out some...

Reading further, documents say that photons (not protons) have a mass varying from massless to the figure I said. If Einsteins equation is to hold true (IF) then photons must have mass, or must be energyless. Or, they have mass and do not travel at the speed of light.

Pretty self explanatory really. If a photon has a mass (1.67 * 10^-27 kg), and it travels at the speed of light, why does it's mass not increase to infinity?

Thank you. Of course the difference is the motion of the train, causing the time dilation, whereas the observers on the platform are stationary relative to the platform, and therefore for them time does not dilate.

Of course! So to the platform observer, the total distance traveled is c*(t1+t2) = 2d+v*(t1-t2). So to the observer on the train, the clock is asymmetric?

I see what you are saying, but isn't that in effect the same as the platform observer traveling with the train?

Thanks Vitro, Actually, ignoring the distance contraction, the parallel light clock appears to me to have the same total distance whether observed from the platform or from the train. On the train it is simple, just double the distance measured between the 2 mirrors (2*d). From the platform I...

Thanks both!

Gents, Thanks to all of you for the really kind and thoughtful responses. I have taken them all on board. I am in fact reading a book on Relativity, though it is very 'light' and so restricts to maths to pythagoras, or inversions of it. Hence it leaves more questions than answers. If any of...

Hi Simon, Once again thank you for the time and effort you put into your responses. It is highly appreciated. Can you explain the inertial/non-inertial frame? Do you refer to moving items with mass, and therefore inertia vs those without mass and therefore zero inertia? Regards Francis