Insights Blog
-- Browse All Articles --
Physics Articles
Physics Tutorials
Physics Guides
Physics FAQ
Math Articles
Math Tutorials
Math Guides
Math FAQ
Education Articles
Education Guides
Bio/Chem Articles
Technology Guides
Computer Science Tutorials
Forums
Classical Physics
Quantum Physics
Quantum Interpretations
Special and General Relativity
Atomic and Condensed Matter
Nuclear and Particle Physics
Beyond the Standard Model
Cosmology
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Other Physics Topics
Trending
Featured Threads
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Classical Physics
Quantum Physics
Quantum Interpretations
Special and General Relativity
Atomic and Condensed Matter
Nuclear and Particle Physics
Beyond the Standard Model
Cosmology
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Other Physics Topics
Menu
Log in
Register
Navigation
More options
Contact us
Close Menu
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Forums
Physics
Special and General Relativity
Gravity's Effect on Mass: Exploring Its Impact
Reply to thread
Message
[QUOTE="Ibix, post: 6050641, member: 365269"] It isn't. A key realisation of relativity was that free-falling bodies aren't accelerating. It's those of us standing on the surface of the Earth or in a rocket under thrust who are accelerating - we are being pushed out of our free-fall paths by the floor, for one reason or another. Mass is a property of things, not a thing itself. So I think you mean "does gravity have a different effect on objects with non-zero mass compared to those with zero mass". The short answer to that is yes and no. Qualitatively the effect is the same: the "straight line" that things travel in naturally becomes a [i]geodesic[/i], which generally has a curved spatial component, when there is a gravitational field. That is true for everything. When you get into the detailed maths, you find a couple of extra terms in the equations for the paths of massive bodies. That's not really surprising since massless objects must move at c and massive ones cannot, so of course their paths are different. It does have an effect on where orbits are possible - massless bodies can only have circular orbits around non-rotating black holes at 1.5 times the Schwarzschild radius, while massive bodies can have circular orbits at any radius above this (although they are only stable above 3 times the Schwarzschild radius. Note that all the above is for test particles whose gravity is so much weaker than whatever they are orbiting that it can be ignored. The way that gravitational source terms other than mass enter the equations of general relativity is quite different from how mass does. I don't know a lot about that. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Post reply
Forums
Physics
Special and General Relativity
Gravity's Effect on Mass: Exploring Its Impact
Back
Top