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Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of
matter In classical physics and general chemistry, matter is any substance that has mass and takes up space by having volume. All everyday objects that can be touched are ultimately composed of atoms, which are made up of interacting subatomic part ...
in a
physical body In common usage and classical mechanics, a physical object or physical body (or simply an object or body) is a collection of matter within a defined contiguous boundary in three-dimensional space. The boundary must be defined and identified by t ...
, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different
elementary particles In particle physics, an elementary particle or fundamental particle is a subatomic particle that is not composed of other particles. Particles currently thought to be elementary include electrons, the fundamental fermions (quarks, leptons, anti ...
, theoretically with the same amount of matter, have nonetheless different masses. Mass in modern physics has multiple
definitions A definition is a statement of the meaning of a term (a word, phrase, or other set of symbols). Definitions can be classified into two large categories: intensional definitions (which try to give the sense of a term), and extensional definiti ...
which are conceptually distinct, but physically
equivalent Equivalence or Equivalent may refer to: Arts and entertainment *Album-equivalent unit, a measurement unit in the music industry * Equivalence class (music) *'' Equivalent VIII'', or ''The Bricks'', a minimalist sculpture by Carl Andre *''Equiva ...
. Mass can be experimentally defined as a measure of the body's
inertia Inertia is the idea that an object will continue its current motion until some force causes its speed or direction to change. The term is properly understood as shorthand for "the principle of inertia" as described by Newton in his first law ...
, meaning the resistance to acceleration (change of velocity) when a
net force Net Force may refer to: * Net force, the overall force acting on an object * ''NetForce'' (film), a 1999 American television film * Tom Clancy's Net Force, a novel series * Tom Clancy's Net Force Explorers, a young adult novel series {{disam ...
is applied. The object's mass also determines the strength of its gravitational attraction to other bodies. The SI base unit of mass is the kilogram (kg). In physics, mass is not the same as weight, even though mass is often determined by measuring the object's weight using a spring scale, rather than
balance scale A scale or balance is a device used to measure weight or mass. These are also known as mass scales, weight scales, mass balances, and weight balances. The traditional scale consists of two plates or bowls suspended at equal distances from a ...
comparing it directly with known masses. An object on the Moon would weigh less than it does on Earth because of the lower gravity, but it would still have the same mass. This is because weight is a force, while mass is the property that (along with gravity) determines the strength of this force.


Phenomena

There are several distinct phenomena that can be used to measure mass. Although some theorists have speculated that some of these phenomena could be independent of each other, current experiments have found no difference in results regardless of how it is measured: * ''Inertial mass'' measures an object's resistance to being accelerated by a force (represented by the relationship ). * ''Active gravitational mass'' determines the strength of the gravitational field generated by an object. * ''Passive gravitational mass'' measures the gravitational force exerted on an object in a known gravitational field. The mass of an object determines its acceleration in the presence of an applied force. The inertia and the inertial mass describe this property of physical bodies at the qualitative and quantitative level respectively. According to Newton's second law of motion, if a body of fixed mass ''m'' is subjected to a single force ''F'', its acceleration ''a'' is given by ''F''/''m''. A body's mass also determines the degree to which it generates and is affected by a gravitational field. If a first body of mass ''m''A is placed at a distance ''r'' (center of mass to center of mass) from a second body of mass ''m''B, each body is subject to an attractive force , where is the "universal gravitational constant". This is sometimes referred to as gravitational mass.When a distinction is necessary, the active and passive gravitational masses may be distinguished. Repeated experiments since the 17th century have demonstrated that inertial and gravitational mass are identical; since 1915, this observation has been incorporated '' a priori'' in the equivalence principle of general relativity.


Units of mass

The International System of Units (SI) unit of mass is the kilogram (kg). The kilogram is 1000 grams (g), and was first defined in 1795 as the mass of one cubic decimetre of water at the melting point of ice. However, because precise measurement of a cubic decimetre of water at the specified temperature and pressure was difficult, in 1889 the kilogram was redefined as the mass of a metal object, and thus became independent of the metre and the properties of water, this being a copper prototype of the grave in 1793, the platinum
Kilogramme des Archives The grave, abbreviated ''gv'', is the unit of mass used in the first metric system which was implemented in France in 1793. In 1795, the grave was renamed as the kilogram. Origin The modern kilogram has its origins in the Age of Enlightenment an ...
in 1799, and the platinum-iridium International Prototype of the Kilogram (IPK) in 1889. However, the mass of the IPK and its national copies have been found to drift over time. The re-definition of the kilogram and several other units came into effect on 20 May 2019, following a final vote by the CGPM in November 2018. The new definition uses only invariant quantities of nature: the speed of light, the caesium hyperfine frequency, the Planck constant and the elementary charge. Non-SI units accepted for use with SI units include: * the tonne (t) (or "metric ton"), equal to 1000 kg * the electronvolt (eV), a unit of energy, used to express mass in units of eV/''c''2 through mass–energy equivalence * the
dalton Dalton may refer to: Science * Dalton (crater), a lunar crater * Dalton (program), chemistry software * Dalton (unit) (Da), the atomic mass unit * John Dalton, chemist, physicist and meteorologist Entertainment * Dalton (Buffyverse), minor ch ...
(Da), equal to 1/12 of the mass of a free carbon-12 atom, approximately .The dalton is convenient for expressing the masses of atoms and molecules. Outside the SI system, other units of mass include: * the slug (sl), an
Imperial unit The imperial system of units, imperial system or imperial units (also known as British Imperial or Exchequer Standards of 1826) is the system of units first defined in the British Weights and Measures Act 1824 and continued to be developed thr ...
of mass (about 14.6 kg) * the pound (lb), a unit of mass (about 0.45 kg), which is used alongside the similarly named pound (force) (about 4.5 N), a unit of forceThese are used mainly in the United States except in scientific contexts where SI units are usually used instead. * the Planck mass (about ), a quantity derived from fundamental constants * the solar mass (), defined as the mass of the
Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...
, primarily used in astronomy to compare large masses such as stars or galaxies (≈ ) * the mass of a particle, as identified with its inverse
Compton wavelength The Compton wavelength is a quantum mechanical property of a particle. The Compton wavelength of a particle is equal to the wavelength of a photon whose energy is the same as the rest energy of that particle (see mass–energy equivalence). It was ...
() * the mass of a star or black hole, as identified with its Schwarzschild radius ().


Definitions

In physical science, one may distinguish conceptually between at least seven different aspects of ''mass'', or seven physical notions that involve the concept of ''mass''. Every experiment to date has shown these seven values to be proportional, and in some cases equal, and this proportionality gives rise to the abstract concept of mass. There are a number of ways mass can be measured or operationally defined: * Inertial mass is a measure of an object's resistance to acceleration when a force is applied. It is determined by applying a force to an object and measuring the acceleration that results from that force. An object with small inertial mass will accelerate more than an object with large inertial mass when acted upon by the same force. One says the body of greater mass has greater
inertia Inertia is the idea that an object will continue its current motion until some force causes its speed or direction to change. The term is properly understood as shorthand for "the principle of inertia" as described by Newton in his first law ...
. * Active gravitational massThe distinction between "active" and "passive" gravitational mass does not exist in the Newtonian view of gravity as found in classical mechanics, and can safely be ignored for many purposes. In most practical applications, Newtonian gravity is assumed because it is usually sufficiently accurate, and is simpler than General Relativity; for example, NASA uses primarily Newtonian gravity to design space missions, although "accuracies are routinely enhanced by accounting for tiny relativistic effects". The distinction between "active" and "passive" is very abstract, and applies to post-graduate level applications of General Relativity to certain problems in cosmology, and is otherwise not used. There is, nevertheless, an important conceptual distinction in Newtonian physics between "inertial mass" and "gravitational mass", although these quantities are identical; the conceptual distinction between these two fundamental definitions of mass is maintained for teaching purposes because they involve two distinct methods of measurement. It was long considered anomalous that the two distinct measurements of mass (inertial and gravitational) gave an identical result. The property, observed by Galileo, that objects of different mass fall with the same rate of acceleration (ignoring air resistance), shows that inertial and gravitational mass are the same. is a measure of the strength of an object's gravitational flux (gravitational flux is equal to the surface integral of gravitational field over an enclosing surface). Gravitational field can be measured by allowing a small "test object" to fall freely and measuring its
free-fall In Newtonian physics, free fall is any motion of a body where gravity is the only force acting upon it. In the context of general relativity, where gravitation is reduced to a space-time curvature, a body in free fall has no force acting on i ...
acceleration. For example, an object in free-fall near the
Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...
is subject to a smaller gravitational field, and hence accelerates more slowly, than the same object would if it were in free-fall near the Earth. The gravitational field near the Moon is weaker because the Moon has less active gravitational mass. * Passive gravitational mass is a measure of the strength of an object's interaction with a gravitational field. Passive gravitational mass is determined by dividing an object's weight by its free-fall acceleration. Two objects within the same gravitational field will experience the same acceleration; however, the object with a smaller passive gravitational mass will experience a smaller force (less weight) than the object with a larger passive gravitational mass. * According to relativity, mass is nothing else than the rest energy of a system of particles, meaning the energy of that system in a reference frame where it has zero momentum. Mass can be converted into other forms of energy according to the principle of mass–energy equivalence. This equivalence is exemplified in a large number of physical processes including pair production, beta decay and
nuclear fusion Nuclear fusion is a reaction in which two or more atomic nuclei are combined to form one or more different atomic nuclei and subatomic particles ( neutrons or protons). The difference in mass between the reactants and products is manife ...
. Pair production and nuclear fusion are processes in which measurable amounts of mass are converted to kinetic energy or vice versa. * Curvature of spacetime is a relativistic manifestation of the existence of mass. Such curvature is extremely weak and difficult to measure. For this reason, curvature was not discovered until after it was predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity. Extremely precise atomic clocks on the surface of the Earth, for example, are found to measure less time (run slower) when compared to similar clocks in space. This difference in elapsed time is a form of curvature called
gravitational time dilation Gravitational time dilation is a form of time dilation, an actual difference of elapsed time between two events as measured by observers situated at varying distances from a gravitating mass. The lower the gravitational potential (the closer ...
. Other forms of curvature have been measured using the Gravity Probe B satellite. * Quantum mass manifests itself as a difference between an object's quantum frequency and its
wave number In the physical sciences, the wavenumber (also wave number or repetency) is the ''spatial frequency'' of a wave, measured in cycles per unit distance (ordinary wavenumber) or radians per unit distance (angular wavenumber). It is analogous to temp ...
. The quantum mass of a particle is proportional to the inverse
Compton wavelength The Compton wavelength is a quantum mechanical property of a particle. The Compton wavelength of a particle is equal to the wavelength of a photon whose energy is the same as the rest energy of that particle (see mass–energy equivalence). It was ...
and can be determined through various forms of spectroscopy. In relativistic quantum mechanics, mass is one of the irreducible representation labels of the Poincaré group.


Weight vs. mass

In everyday usage, mass and " weight" are often used interchangeably. For instance, a person's weight may be stated as 75 kg. In a constant gravitational field, the weight of an object is proportional to its mass, and it is unproblematic to use the same unit for both concepts. But because of slight differences in the strength of the Earth's gravitational field at different places, the distinction becomes important for measurements with a precision better than a few percent, and for places far from the surface of the Earth, such as in space or on other planets. Conceptually, "mass" (measured in kilograms) refers to an intrinsic property of an object, whereas "weight" (measured in newtons) measures an object's resistance to deviating from its current course of
free fall In Newtonian physics, free fall is any motion of a body where gravity is the only force acting upon it. In the context of general relativity, where gravitation is reduced to a space-time curvature, a body in free fall has no force acting on ...
, which can be influenced by the nearby gravitational field. No matter how strong the gravitational field, objects in free fall are weightless, though they still have mass. The force known as "weight" is proportional to mass and acceleration in all situations where the mass is accelerated away from free fall. For example, when a body is at rest in a gravitational field (rather than in free fall), it must be accelerated by a force from a scale or the surface of a planetary body such as the
Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...
or the
Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...
. This force keeps the object from going into free fall. Weight is the opposing force in such circumstances and is thus determined by the acceleration of free fall. On the surface of the Earth, for example, an object with a mass of 50 kilograms weighs 491 newtons, which means that 491 newtons is being applied to keep the object from going into free fall. By contrast, on the surface of the Moon, the same object still has a mass of 50 kilograms but weighs only 81.5 newtons, because only 81.5 newtons is required to keep this object from going into a free fall on the moon. Restated in mathematical terms, on the surface of the Earth, the weight ''W'' of an object is related to its mass ''m'' by , where is the acceleration due to Earth's gravitational field, (expressed as the acceleration experienced by a free-falling object). For other situations, such as when objects are subjected to mechanical accelerations from forces other than the resistance of a planetary surface, the weight force is proportional to the mass of an object multiplied by the total acceleration away from free fall, which is called the proper acceleration. Through such mechanisms, objects in elevators, vehicles, centrifuges, and the like, may experience weight forces many times those caused by resistance to the effects of gravity on objects, resulting from planetary surfaces. In such cases, the generalized equation for weight ''W'' of an object is related to its mass ''m'' by the equation , where ''a'' is the proper acceleration of the object caused by all influences other than gravity. (Again, if gravity is the only influence, such as occurs when an object falls freely, its weight will be zero).


Inertial vs. gravitational mass

Although inertial mass, passive gravitational mass and active gravitational mass are conceptually distinct, no experiment has ever unambiguously demonstrated any difference between them. In classical mechanics, Newton's third law implies that active and passive gravitational mass must always be identical (or at least proportional), but the classical theory offers no compelling reason why the gravitational mass has to equal the inertial mass. That it does is merely an empirical fact. Albert Einstein developed his
general theory of relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity and Einstein's theory of gravity, is the differential geometry, geometric scientific theory, theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current descr ...
starting with the assumption that the inertial and passive gravitational masses are the same. This is known as the equivalence principle. The particular equivalence often referred to as the "Galilean equivalence principle" or the " weak equivalence principle" has the most important consequence for freely falling objects. Suppose an object has inertial and gravitational masses ''m'' and ''M'', respectively. If the only force acting on the object comes from a gravitational field ''g'', the force on the object is: : F = M g. Given this force, the acceleration of the object can be determined by Newton's second law: : F = m a. Putting these together, the gravitational acceleration is given by: : a=\fracg. This says that the ratio of gravitational to inertial mass of any object is equal to some constant ''K'' if and only if all objects fall at the same rate in a given gravitational field. This phenomenon is referred to as the "universality of free-fall". In addition, the constant ''K'' can be taken as 1 by defining our units appropriately. The first experiments demonstrating the universality of free-fall were—according to scientific 'folklore'—conducted by Galileo obtained by dropping objects from the
Leaning Tower of Pisa The Leaning Tower of Pisa ( it, torre pendente di Pisa), or simply, the Tower of Pisa (''torre di Pisa'' ), is the ''campanile'', or freestanding bell tower, of Pisa Cathedral. It is known for its nearly four-degree lean, the result of an unst ...
. This is most likely apocryphal: he is more likely to have performed his experiments with balls rolling down nearly frictionless inclined planes to slow the motion and increase the timing accuracy. Increasingly precise experiments have been performed, such as those performed by
Loránd Eötvös Baron Loránd Eötvös de Vásárosnamény (or Loránd Eötvös, , '' hu, vásárosnaményi báró Eötvös Loránd Ágoston''; 27 July 1848 – 8 April 1919), also called Baron Roland von Eötvös in English literature, was a Hungarian physicist ...
, using the
torsion balance A torsion spring is a spring that works by twisting its end along its axis; that is, a flexible elastic object that stores mechanical energy when it is twisted. When it is twisted, it exerts a torque in the opposite direction, proportional ...
pendulum, in 1889. , no deviation from universality, and thus from Galilean equivalence, has ever been found, at least to the precision 10−6. More precise experimental efforts are still being carried out. The universality of free-fall only applies to systems in which gravity is the only acting force. All other forces, especially friction and
air resistance In fluid dynamics, drag (sometimes called air resistance, a type of friction, or fluid resistance, another type of friction or fluid friction) is a force acting opposite to the relative motion of any object moving with respect to a surrounding flu ...
, must be absent or at least negligible. For example, if a hammer and a feather are dropped from the same height through the air on Earth, the feather will take much longer to reach the ground; the feather is not really in ''free''-fall because the force of air resistance upwards against the feather is comparable to the downward force of gravity. On the other hand, if the experiment is performed in a vacuum, in which there is no air resistance, the hammer and the feather should hit the ground at exactly the same time (assuming the acceleration of both objects towards each other, and of the ground towards both objects, for its own part, is negligible). This can easily be done in a high school laboratory by dropping the objects in transparent tubes that have the air removed with a vacuum pump. It is even more dramatic when done in an environment that naturally has a vacuum, as
David Scott David Randolph Scott (born June 6, 1932) is an American retired test pilot and NASA astronaut who was the seventh person to walk on the Moon. Selected as part of the third group of astronauts in 1963, Scott flew to space three times and ...
did on the surface of the
Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...
during Apollo 15. A stronger version of the equivalence principle, known as the ''Einstein equivalence principle'' or the ''strong equivalence principle'', lies at the heart of the
general theory of relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity and Einstein's theory of gravity, is the differential geometry, geometric scientific theory, theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current descr ...
. Einstein's equivalence principle states that within sufficiently small regions of space-time, it is impossible to distinguish between a uniform acceleration and a uniform gravitational field. Thus, the theory postulates that the force acting on a massive object caused by a gravitational field is a result of the object's tendency to move in a straight line (in other words its inertia) and should therefore be a function of its inertial mass and the strength of the gravitational field.


Origin

In theoretical physics, a mass generation mechanism is a theory which attempts to explain the origin of mass from the most fundamental laws of physics. To date, a number of different models have been proposed which advocate different views of the origin of mass. The problem is complicated by the fact that the notion of mass is strongly related to the
gravitational interaction In physics, gravity () is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interactions, approximately 1038 times weaker than the stron ...
but a theory of the latter has not been yet reconciled with the currently popular model of particle physics, known as the Standard Model.


Pre-Newtonian concepts


Weight as an amount

The concept of amount is very old and predates recorded history. Humans, at some early era, realized that the weight of a collection of similar objects was
directly proportional In mathematics, two sequences of numbers, often experimental data, are proportional or directly proportional if their corresponding elements have a constant ratio, which is called the coefficient of proportionality or proportionality constan ...
to the number of objects in the collection: : W_n \propto n, where ''W'' is the weight of the collection of similar objects and ''n'' is the number of objects in the collection. Proportionality, by definition, implies that two values have a constant ratio: : \frac = \frac, or equivalently \frac = \frac. An early use of this relationship is a
balance scale A scale or balance is a device used to measure weight or mass. These are also known as mass scales, weight scales, mass balances, and weight balances. The traditional scale consists of two plates or bowls suspended at equal distances from a ...
, which balances the force of one object's weight against the force of another object's weight. The two sides of a balance scale are close enough that the objects experience similar gravitational fields. Hence, if they have similar masses then their weights will also be similar. This allows the scale, by comparing weights, to also compare masses. Consequently, historical weight standards were often defined in terms of amounts. The Romans, for example, used the carob seed ( carat or
siliqua The siliqua (plural ''siliquae'') is the modern name given (without any ancient evidence to confirm the designation) to small, thin, Roman silver coins produced in the 4th century A.D. and later. When the coins were in circulation, the Latin wo ...
) as a measurement standard. If an object's weight was equivalent t
1728 carob seeds
then the object was said to weigh one Roman pound. If, on the other hand, the object's weight was equivalent to 144 carob seeds then the object was said to weigh one Roman ounce (uncia). The Roman pound and ounce were both defined in terms of different sized collections of the same common mass standard, the carob seed. The ratio of a Roman ounce (144 carob seeds) to a Roman pound (1728 carob seeds) was: : \frac = \frac = \frac = \frac.


Planetary motion

In 1600 AD, Johannes Kepler sought employment with
Tycho Brahe Tycho Brahe ( ; born Tyge Ottesen Brahe; generally called Tycho (14 December 154624 October 1601) was a Danish astronomer, known for his comprehensive astronomical observations, generally considered to be the most accurate of his time. He was ...
, who had some of the most precise astronomical data available. Using Brahe's precise observations of the planet Mars, Kepler spent the next five years developing his own method for characterizing planetary motion. In 1609, Johannes Kepler published his three laws of planetary motion, explaining how the planets orbit the Sun. In Kepler's final planetary model, he described planetary orbits as following elliptical paths with the Sun at a focal point of the ellipse. Kepler discovered that the
square In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90- degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length a ...
of the orbital period of each planet is directly proportional to the cube of the semi-major axis of its orbit, or equivalently, that the ratio of these two values is constant for all planets in the Solar System.This constant ratio was later shown to be a direct measure of the Sun's active gravitational mass; it has units of distance cubed per time squared, and is known as the standard gravitational parameter: : \mu=4\pi^2\frac\propto\text On 25 August 1609, Galileo Galilei demonstrated his first telescope to a group of Venetian merchants, and in early January 1610, Galileo observed four dim objects near Jupiter, which he mistook for stars. However, after a few days of observation, Galileo realized that these "stars" were in fact orbiting Jupiter. These four objects (later named the Galilean moons in honor of their discoverer) were the first celestial bodies observed to orbit something other than the Earth or Sun. Galileo continued to observe these moons over the next eighteen months, and by the middle of 1611, he had obtained remarkably accurate estimates for their periods.


Galilean free fall

Sometime prior to 1638, Galileo turned his attention to the phenomenon of objects in free fall, attempting to characterize these motions. Galileo was not the first to investigate Earth's gravitational field, nor was he the first to accurately describe its fundamental characteristics. However, Galileo's reliance on scientific experimentation to establish physical principles would have a profound effect on future generations of scientists. It is unclear if these were just hypothetical experiments used to illustrate a concept, or if they were real experiments performed by Galileo, but the results obtained from these experiments were both realistic and compelling. A biography by Galileo's pupil
Vincenzo Viviani Vincenzo Viviani (April 5, 1622 – September 22, 1703) was an Italian mathematician and scientist. He was a pupil of Torricelli and a disciple of Galileo.balls of the same material, but different masses, from the
Leaning Tower of Pisa The Leaning Tower of Pisa ( it, torre pendente di Pisa), or simply, the Tower of Pisa (''torre di Pisa'' ), is the ''campanile'', or freestanding bell tower, of Pisa Cathedral. It is known for its nearly four-degree lean, the result of an unst ...
to demonstrate that their time of descent was independent of their mass.At the time when Viviani asserts that the experiment took place, Galileo had not yet formulated the final version of his law of free fall. He had, however, formulated an earlier version that predicted that bodies ''of the same material'' falling through the same medium would fall at the same speed. See In support of this conclusion, Galileo had advanced the following theoretical argument: He asked if two bodies of different masses and different rates of fall are tied by a string, does the combined system fall faster because it is now more massive, or does the lighter body in its slower fall hold back the heavier body? The only convincing resolution to this question is that all bodies must fall at the same rate. A later experiment was described in Galileo's ''Two New Sciences'' published in 1638. One of Galileo's fictional characters, Salviati, describes an experiment using a bronze ball and a wooden ramp. The wooden ramp was "12 cubits long, half a cubit wide and three finger-breadths thick" with a straight, smooth, polished
groove Groove or Grooves may refer to: Music * Groove (music) * Groove (drumming) * The Groove (band), an Australian rock/pop band of the 1960s * The Groove (Sirius XM), a US radio station * Groove 101.7FM, a former Perth, Australia, radio station ...
. The groove was lined with " parchment, also smooth and polished as possible". And into this groove was placed "a hard, smooth and very round bronze ball". The ramp was inclined at various angles to slow the acceleration enough so that the elapsed time could be measured. The ball was allowed to roll a known distance down the ramp, and the time taken for the ball to move the known distance was measured. The time was measured using a water clock described as follows: :a large vessel of water placed in an elevated position; to the bottom of this vessel was soldered a pipe of small diameter giving a thin jet of water, which we collected in a small glass during the time of each descent, whether for the whole length of the channel or for a part of its length; the water thus collected was weighed, after each descent, on a very accurate balance; the differences and ratios of these weights gave us the differences and ratios of the times, and this with such accuracy that although the operation was repeated many, many times, there was no appreciable discrepancy in the results. Galileo found that for an object in free fall, the distance that the object has fallen is always proportional to the square of the elapsed time: : \propto Galileo had shown that objects in free fall under the influence of the Earth's gravitational field have a constant acceleration, and Galileo's contemporary, Johannes Kepler, had shown that the planets follow elliptical paths under the influence of the Sun's gravitational mass. However, Galileo's free fall motions and Kepler's planetary motions remained distinct during Galileo's lifetime.


Newtonian mass

Robert Hooke had published his concept of gravitational forces in 1674, stating that all celestial bodies have an attraction or gravitating power towards their own centers, and also attract all the other celestial bodies that are within the sphere of their activity. He further stated that gravitational attraction increases by how much nearer the body wrought upon is to its own center. In correspondence with Isaac Newton from 1679 and 1680, Hooke conjectured that gravitational forces might decrease according to the double of the distance between the two bodies. Hooke urged Newton, who was a pioneer in the development of calculus, to work through the mathematical details of Keplerian orbits to determine if Hooke's hypothesis was correct. Newton's own investigations verified that Hooke was correct, but due to personal differences between the two men, Newton chose not to reveal this to Hooke. Isaac Newton kept quiet about his discoveries until 1684, at which time he told a friend,
Edmond Halley Edmond (or Edmund) Halley (; – ) was an English astronomer, mathematician and physicist. He was the second Astronomer Royal in Britain, succeeding John Flamsteed in 1720. From an observatory he constructed on Saint Helena in 1676–77, H ...
, that he had solved the problem of gravitational orbits, but had misplaced the solution in his office. After being encouraged by Halley, Newton decided to develop his ideas about gravity and publish all of his findings. In November 1684, Isaac Newton sent a document to Edmund Halley, now lost but presumed to have been titled ''
De motu corporum in gyrum (from Latin: "On the motion of bodies in an orbit"; abbreviated ) is the presumed title of a manuscript by Isaac Newton sent to Edmond Halley in November 1684. The manuscript was prompted by a visit from Halley earlier that year when he had q ...
'' (Latin for "On the motion of bodies in an orbit"). Halley presented Newton's findings to the Royal Society of London, with a promise that a fuller presentation would follow. Newton later recorded his ideas in a three-book set, entitled '' Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica'' (Latin: ''Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy''). The first was received by the Royal Society on 28 April 1685–86; the second on 2 March 1686–87; and the third on 6 April 1686–87. The Royal Society published Newton's entire collection at their own expense in May 1686–87. Isaac Newton had bridged the gap between Kepler's gravitational mass and Galileo's gravitational acceleration, resulting in the discovery of the following relationship which governed both of these: : \mathbf=-\mu\frac where g is the apparent acceleration of a body as it passes through a region of space where gravitational fields exist, ''μ'' is the gravitational mass ( standard gravitational parameter) of the body causing gravitational fields, and R is the radial coordinate (the distance between the centers of the two bodies). By finding the exact relationship between a body's gravitational mass and its gravitational field, Newton provided a second method for measuring gravitational mass. The mass of the Earth can be determined using Kepler's method (from the orbit of Earth's Moon), or it can be determined by measuring the gravitational acceleration on the Earth's surface, and multiplying that by the square of the Earth's radius. The mass of the Earth is approximately three-millionths of the mass of the Sun. To date, no other accurate method for measuring gravitational mass has been discovered.


Newton's cannonball

Newton's cannonball was a thought experiment used to bridge the gap between Galileo's gravitational acceleration and Kepler's elliptical orbits. It appeared in Newton's 1728 book ''A Treatise of the System of the World''. According to Galileo's concept of gravitation, a dropped stone falls with constant acceleration down towards the Earth. However, Newton explains that when a stone is thrown horizontally (meaning sideways or perpendicular to Earth's gravity) it follows a curved path. "For a stone projected is by the pressure of its own weight forced out of the rectilinear path, which by the projection alone it should have pursued, and made to describe a curve line in the air; and through that crooked way is at last brought down to the ground. And the greater the velocity is with which it is projected, the farther it goes before it falls to the Earth." Newton further reasons that if an object were "projected in an horizontal direction from the top of a high mountain" with sufficient velocity, "it would reach at last quite beyond the circumference of the Earth, and return to the mountain from which it was projected."


Universal gravitational mass

In contrast to earlier theories (e.g.
celestial spheres The celestial spheres, or celestial orbs, were the fundamental entities of the cosmological models developed by Plato, Eudoxus, Aristotle, Ptolemy, Copernicus, and others. In these celestial models, the apparent motions of the fixed stars ...
) which stated that the heavens were made of entirely different material, Newton's theory of mass was groundbreaking partly because it introduced universal gravitational mass: every object has gravitational mass, and therefore, every object generates a gravitational field. Newton further assumed that the strength of each object's gravitational field would decrease according to the square of the distance to that object. If a large collection of small objects were formed into a giant spherical body such as the Earth or Sun, Newton calculated the collection would create a gravitational field proportional to the total mass of the body, and inversely proportional to the square of the distance to the body's center.These two properties are very useful, as they allow spherical collections of objects to be treated exactly like large individual objects. For example, according to Newton's theory of universal gravitation, each carob seed produces a gravitational field. Therefore, if one were to gather an immense number of carob seeds and form them into an enormous sphere, then the gravitational field of the sphere would be proportional to the number of carob seeds in the sphere. Hence, it should be theoretically possible to determine the exact number of carob seeds that would be required to produce a gravitational field similar to that of the Earth or Sun. In fact, by unit conversion it is a simple matter of abstraction to realize that any traditional mass unit can theoretically be used to measure gravitational mass. Measuring gravitational mass in terms of traditional mass units is simple in principle, but extremely difficult in practice. According to Newton's theory, all objects produce gravitational fields and it is theoretically possible to collect an immense number of small objects and form them into an enormous gravitating sphere. However, from a practical standpoint, the gravitational fields of small objects are extremely weak and difficult to measure. Newton's books on universal gravitation were published in the 1680s, but the first successful measurement of the Earth's mass in terms of traditional mass units, the
Cavendish experiment The Cavendish experiment, performed in 1797–1798 by English scientist Henry Cavendish, was the first experiment to measure the force of gravity between masses in the laboratory and the first to yield accurate values for the gravitational con ...
, did not occur until 1797, over a hundred years later.
Henry Cavendish Henry Cavendish ( ; 10 October 1731 – 24 February 1810) was an English natural philosopher and scientist who was an important experimental and theoretical chemist and physicist. He is noted for his discovery of hydrogen, which he termed "infl ...
found that the Earth's density was 5.448 ± 0.033 times that of water. As of 2009, the Earth's mass in kilograms is only known to around five digits of accuracy, whereas its gravitational mass is known to over nine significant figures. Given two objects A and B, of masses ''M''A and ''M''B, separated by a displacement RAB, Newton's law of gravitation states that each object exerts a gravitational force on the other, of magnitude : \mathbf_=-GM_M_\frac\ , where ''G'' is the universal gravitational constant. The above statement may be reformulated in the following way: if ''g'' is the magnitude at a given location in a gravitational field, then the gravitational force on an object with gravitational mass ''M'' is : F=Mg. This is the basis by which masses are determined by
weighing In science and engineering, the weight of an object is the force acting on the object due to gravity. Some standard textbooks define weight as a vector quantity, the gravitational force acting on the object. Others define weight as a scalar quan ...
. In simple spring scales, for example, the force ''F'' is proportional to the displacement of the spring beneath the weighing pan, as per Hooke's law, and the scales are
calibrated In measurement technology and metrology, calibration is the comparison of measurement values delivered by a device under test with those of a calibration standard of known accuracy. Such a standard could be another measurement device of known ...
to take ''g'' into account, allowing the mass ''M'' to be read off. Assuming the gravitational field is equivalent on both sides of the balance, a
balance Balance or balancing may refer to: Common meanings * Balance (ability) in biomechanics * Balance (accounting) * Balance or weighing scale * Balance as in equality or equilibrium Arts and entertainment Film * ''Balance'' (1983 film), a Bulgaria ...
measures relative weight, giving the relative gravitation mass of each object.


Inertial mass

''Inertial mass'' is the mass of an object measured by its resistance to acceleration. This definition has been championed by Ernst MachOri Belkind, "Physical Systems: Conceptual Pathways between Flat Space-time and Matter" (2012) Springer (''Chapter 5.3'') and has since been developed into the notion of operationalism by Percy W. Bridgman. The simple classical mechanics definition of mass differs slightly from the definition in the theory of special relativity, but the essential meaning is the same. In classical mechanics, according to Newton's second law, we say that a body has a mass ''m'' if, at any instant of time, it obeys the equation of motion : \mathbf=m \mathbf, where F is the resultant force acting on the body and a is the acceleration of the body's centre of mass.In its original form, Newton's second law is valid only for bodies of constant mass. For the moment, we will put aside the question of what "force acting on the body" actually means. This equation illustrates how mass relates to the
inertia Inertia is the idea that an object will continue its current motion until some force causes its speed or direction to change. The term is properly understood as shorthand for "the principle of inertia" as described by Newton in his first law ...
of a body. Consider two objects with different masses. If we apply an identical force to each, the object with a bigger mass will experience a smaller acceleration, and the object with a smaller mass will experience a bigger acceleration. We might say that the larger mass exerts a greater "resistance" to changing its state of motion in response to the force. However, this notion of applying "identical" forces to different objects brings us back to the fact that we have not really defined what a force is. We can sidestep this difficulty with the help of
Newton's third law Newton's laws of motion are three basic laws of classical mechanics that describe the relationship between the motion of an object and the forces acting on it. These laws can be paraphrased as follows: # A body remains at rest, or in moti ...
, which states that if one object exerts a force on a second object, it will experience an equal and opposite force. To be precise, suppose we have two objects of constant inertial masses ''m''1 and ''m''2. We isolate the two objects from all other physical influences, so that the only forces present are the force exerted on ''m''1 by ''m''2, which we denote F12, and the force exerted on ''m''2 by ''m''1, which we denote F21. Newton's second law states that : \begin \mathbf & =m_1\mathbf_1,\\ \mathbf & =m_2\mathbf_2, \end where a1 and a2 are the accelerations of ''m''1 and ''m''2, respectively. Suppose that these accelerations are non-zero, so that the forces between the two objects are non-zero. This occurs, for example, if the two objects are in the process of colliding with one another. Newton's third law then states that : \mathbf_=-\mathbf_; and thus : m_1=m_2\frac\!. If is non-zero, the fraction is well-defined, which allows us to measure the inertial mass of ''m''1. In this case, ''m''2 is our "reference" object, and we can define its mass ''m'' as (say) 1 kilogram. Then we can measure the mass of any other object in the universe by colliding it with the reference object and measuring the accelerations. Additionally, mass relates a body's momentum p to its linear velocity v: : \mathbf=m\mathbf, and the body's kinetic energy ''K'' to its velocity: : K=\dfracm, \mathbf, ^2. The primary difficulty with Mach's definition of mass is that it fails to take into account the potential energy (or binding energy) needed to bring two masses sufficiently close to one another to perform the measurement of mass. This is most vividly demonstrated by comparing the mass of the proton in the nucleus of deuterium, to the mass of the proton in free space (which is greater by about 0.239%—this is due to the binding energy of deuterium). Thus, for example, if the reference weight ''m''2 is taken to be the mass of the neutron in free space, and the relative accelerations for the proton and neutron in deuterium are computed, then the above formula over-estimates the mass ''m''1 (by 0.239%) for the proton in deuterium. At best, Mach's formula can only be used to obtain ratios of masses, that is, as ''m''1 / ''m''2 =  / . An additional difficulty was pointed out by Henri Poincaré, which is that the measurement of instantaneous acceleration is impossible: unlike the measurement of time or distance, there is no way to measure acceleration with a single measurement; one must make multiple measurements (of position, time, etc.) and perform a computation to obtain the acceleration. Poincaré termed this to be an "insurmountable flaw" in the Mach definition of mass.


Atomic masses

Typically, the mass of objects is measured in terms of the kilogram, which since 2019 is defined in terms of fundamental constants of nature. The mass of an atom or other particle can be compared more precisely and more conveniently to that of another atom, and thus scientists developed the
dalton Dalton may refer to: Science * Dalton (crater), a lunar crater * Dalton (program), chemistry software * Dalton (unit) (Da), the atomic mass unit * John Dalton, chemist, physicist and meteorologist Entertainment * Dalton (Buffyverse), minor ch ...
(also known as the unified atomic mass unit). By definition, 1 Da (one
dalton Dalton may refer to: Science * Dalton (crater), a lunar crater * Dalton (program), chemistry software * Dalton (unit) (Da), the atomic mass unit * John Dalton, chemist, physicist and meteorologist Entertainment * Dalton (Buffyverse), minor ch ...
) is exactly one-twelfth of the mass of a carbon-12 atom, and thus, a carbon-12 atom has a mass of exactly 12 Da.


In relativity


Special relativity

In some frameworks of special relativity, physicists have used different definitions of the term. In these frameworks, two kinds of mass are defined:
rest mass The invariant mass, rest mass, intrinsic mass, proper mass, or in the case of bound systems simply mass, is the portion of the total mass of an object or system of objects that is independent of the overall motion of the system. More precisely, i ...
(invariant mass),It is possible to make a slight distinction between "rest mass" and "invariant mass". For a system of two or more particles, none of the particles are required be at rest with respect to the observer for the system as a whole to be at rest with respect to the observer. To avoid this confusion, some sources will use "rest mass" only for individual particles, and "invariant mass" for systems. and relativistic mass (which increases with velocity). Rest mass is the Newtonian mass as measured by an observer moving along with the object. ''Relativistic mass'' is the total quantity of energy in a body or system divided by ''c''2. The two are related by the following equation: : m_\mathrm=\gamma (m_\mathrm)\! where \gamma is the
Lorentz factor The Lorentz factor or Lorentz term is a quantity expressing how much the measurements of time, length, and other physical properties change for an object while that object is moving. The expression appears in several equations in special relativit ...
: : \gamma = \frac The invariant mass of systems is the same for observers in all inertial frames, while the relativistic mass depends on the observer's frame of reference. In order to formulate the equations of physics such that mass values do not change between observers, it is convenient to use rest mass. The rest mass of a body is also related to its energy ''E'' and the magnitude of its momentum p by the
relativistic energy-momentum equation Relativity may refer to: Physics * Galilean relativity, Galileo's conception of relativity * Numerical relativity, a subfield of computational physics that aims to establish numerical solutions to Einstein's field equations in general relativity ...
: : (m_\mathrm)c^2=\sqrt.\! So long as the system is closed with respect to mass and energy, both kinds of mass are conserved in any given frame of reference. The conservation of mass holds even as some types of particles are converted to others. Matter particles (such as atoms) may be converted to non-matter particles (such as photons of light), but this does not affect the total amount of mass or energy. Although things like heat may not be matter, all types of energy still continue to exhibit mass.For example, a nuclear bomb in an idealized super-strong box, sitting on a scale, would in theory show no change in mass when detonated (although the inside of the box would become much hotter). In such a system, the mass of the box would change only if energy were allowed to escape from the box as light or heat. However, in that case, the removed energy would take its associated mass with it. Letting heat or radiation out of such a system is simply a way to remove mass. Thus, mass, like energy, cannot be destroyed, but only moved from one place to another. Thus, mass and energy do not change into one another in relativity; rather, both are names for the same thing, and neither mass nor energy ''appear'' without the other. Both rest and relativistic mass can be expressed as an energy by applying the well-known relationship ''E'' = ''mc''2, yielding rest energy and "relativistic energy" (total system energy) respectively: : E_\mathrm=(m_\mathrm)c^2\! : E_\mathrm=(m_\mathrm)c^2\! The "relativistic" mass and energy concepts are related to their "rest" counterparts, but they do not have the same value as their rest counterparts in systems where there is a net momentum. Because the relativistic mass is proportional to the energy, it has gradually fallen into disuse among physicists. There is disagreement over whether the concept remains useful pedagogically. In bound systems, the binding energy must often be subtracted from the mass of the unbound system, because binding energy commonly leaves the system at the time it is bound. The mass of the system changes in this process merely because the system was not closed during the binding process, so the energy escaped. For example, the binding energy of atomic nuclei is often lost in the form of gamma rays when the nuclei are formed, leaving nuclides which have less mass than the free particles (
nucleon In physics and chemistry, a nucleon is either a proton or a neutron, considered in its role as a component of an atomic nucleus. The number of nucleons in a nucleus defines the atom's mass number (nucleon number). Until the 1960s, nucleons were ...
s) of which they are composed. Mass–energy equivalence also holds in macroscopic systems. For example, if one takes exactly one kilogram of ice, and applies heat, the mass of the resulting melt-water will be more than a kilogram: it will include the mass from the
thermal energy The term "thermal energy" is used loosely in various contexts in physics and engineering. It can refer to several different well-defined physical concepts. These include the internal energy or enthalpy of a body of matter and radiation; heat, de ...
(
latent heat Latent heat (also known as latent energy or heat of transformation) is energy released or absorbed, by a body or a thermodynamic system, during a constant-temperature process — usually a first-order phase transition. Latent heat can be underst ...
) used to melt the ice; this follows from the conservation of energy. This number is small but not negligible: about 3.7 nanograms. It is given by the
latent heat Latent heat (also known as latent energy or heat of transformation) is energy released or absorbed, by a body or a thermodynamic system, during a constant-temperature process — usually a first-order phase transition. Latent heat can be underst ...
of melting ice (334 kJ/kg) divided by the speed of light squared (''c''2 ≈ ).


General relativity

In general relativity, the equivalence principle is the equivalence of gravitational and
inertial mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementa ...
. At the core of this assertion is Albert Einstein's idea that the gravitational force as experienced locally while standing on a massive body (such as the Earth) is the same as the ''
pseudo-force A fictitious force is a force that appears to act on a mass whose motion is described using a non-inertial frame of reference, such as a linearly accelerating or rotating reference frame. It is related to Newton's second law of motion, which trea ...
'' experienced by an observer in a non-
inertial In classical physics and special relativity, an inertial frame of reference (also called inertial reference frame, inertial frame, inertial space, or Galilean reference frame) is a frame of reference that is not undergoing any acceleration. ...
(i.e. accelerated) frame of reference. However, it turns out that it is impossible to find an objective general definition for the concept of invariant mass in general relativity. At the core of the problem is the non-linearity of the
Einstein field equations In the general theory of relativity, the Einstein field equations (EFE; also known as Einstein's equations) relate the geometry of spacetime to the distribution of matter within it. The equations were published by Einstein in 1915 in the form ...
, making it impossible to write the gravitational field energy as part of the stress–energy tensor in a way that is invariant for all observers. For a given observer, this can be achieved by the stress–energy–momentum pseudotensor.


In quantum physics

In classical mechanics, the inert mass of a particle appears in the
Euler–Lagrange equation In the calculus of variations and classical mechanics, the Euler–Lagrange equations are a system of second-order ordinary differential equations whose solutions are stationary points of the given action functional. The equations were discovered ...
as a parameter ''m'': : \frac \ \left( \, \frac \, \right) \ = \ m \, \ddot_i . After quantization, replacing the position vector ''x'' with a
wave function A wave function in quantum physics is a mathematical description of the quantum state of an isolated quantum system. The wave function is a complex-valued probability amplitude, and the probabilities for the possible results of measurements ...
, the parameter ''m'' appears in the kinetic energy operator: : i\hbar\frac \Psi(\mathbf,\,t) = \left(-\frac\nabla^2 + V(\mathbf)\right)\Psi(\mathbf,\,t). In the ostensibly covariant (relativistically invariant)
Dirac equation In particle physics, the Dirac equation is a relativistic wave equation derived by British physicist Paul Dirac in 1928. In its free form, or including electromagnetic interactions, it describes all spin- massive particles, called "Dirac par ...
, and in
natural units In physics, natural units are physical units of measurement in which only universal physical constants are used as defining constants, such that each of these constants acts as a coherent unit of a quantity. For example, the elementary charge ma ...
, this becomes: : (-i\gamma^\mu\partial_\mu + m) \psi = 0\, where the " mass" parameter ''m'' is now simply a constant associated with the quantum described by the wave function ψ. In the Standard Model of particle physics as developed in the 1960s, this term arises from the coupling of the field ψ to an additional field Φ, the Higgs field. In the case of fermions, the Higgs mechanism results in the replacement of the term ''m''ψ in the Lagrangian with G_ \overline \phi \psi. This shifts the explanandum of the value for the mass of each elementary particle to the value of the unknown coupling constant ''G''ψ.


Tachyonic particles and imaginary (complex) mass

A tachyonic field, or simply tachyon, is a quantum field with an imaginary mass. Although tachyons ( particles that move
faster than light Faster-than-light (also FTL, superluminal or supercausal) travel and communication are the conjectural propagation of matter or information faster than the speed of light (). The special theory of relativity implies that only particles with zero ...
) are a purely hypothetical concept not generally believed to exist,Lisa Randall, ''Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions'', p.286: "People initially thought of tachyons as particles travelling faster than the speed of light...But we now know that a tachyon indicates an instability in a theory that contains it. Regrettably for science fiction fans, tachyons are not real physical particles that appear in nature."
fields Fields may refer to: Music * Fields (band), an indie rock band formed in 2006 * Fields (progressive rock band), a progressive rock band formed in 1971 * ''Fields'' (album), an LP by Swedish-based indie rock band Junip (2010) * "Fields", a song b ...
with imaginary mass have come to play an important
role A role (also rôle or social role) is a set of connected behaviors, rights, moral obligation, obligations, beliefs, and social norm, norms as conceptualized by people in a social situation. It is an expected or free or continuously changing behavi ...
in modern physics and are discussed in popular books on physics.Brian Greene, ''The Elegant Universe'', Vintage Books (2000) Under no circumstances do any excitations ever propagate faster than light in such theories—the presence or absence of a tachyonic mass has no effect whatsoever on the maximum velocity of signals (there is no violation of causality). While the ''field'' may have imaginary mass, any physical particles do not; the "imaginary mass" shows that the system becomes unstable, and sheds the instability by undergoing a type of phase transition called
tachyon condensation A tachyon () or tachyonic particle is a hypothetical particle that always travels faster than light. Physicists believe that faster-than-light particles cannot exist because they are not consistent with the known laws of physics. If such parti ...
(closely related to second order phase transitions) that results in
symmetry breaking In physics, symmetry breaking is a phenomenon in which (infinitesimally) small fluctuations acting on a system crossing a critical point decide the system's fate, by determining which branch of a bifurcation is taken. To an outside observe ...
in current models of particle physics. The term " tachyon" was coined by Gerald Feinberg in a 1967 paper, but it was soon realized that Feinberg's model in fact did not allow for superluminal speeds. Instead, the imaginary mass creates an instability in the configuration:- any configuration in which one or more field excitations are tachyonic will spontaneously decay, and the resulting configuration contains no physical tachyons. This process is known as tachyon condensation. Well known examples include the condensation of the Higgs boson in particle physics, and
ferromagnetism Ferromagnetism is a property of certain materials (such as iron) which results in a large observed magnetic permeability, and in many cases a large magnetic coercivity allowing the material to form a permanent magnet. Ferromagnetic materials ...
in condensed matter physics. Although the notion of a tachyonic imaginary mass might seem troubling because there is no classical interpretation of an imaginary mass, the mass is not quantized. Rather, the scalar field is; even for tachyonic quantum fields, the field operators at
spacelike In physics, spacetime is a mathematical model that combines the three dimensions of space and one dimension of time into a single four-dimensional manifold. Spacetime diagrams can be used to visualize relativistic effects, such as why differen ...
separated points still commute (or anticommute), thus preserving causality. Therefore, information still does not propagate faster than light, and solutions grow exponentially, but not superluminally (there is no violation of causality).
Tachyon condensation A tachyon () or tachyonic particle is a hypothetical particle that always travels faster than light. Physicists believe that faster-than-light particles cannot exist because they are not consistent with the known laws of physics. If such parti ...
drives a physical system that has reached a local limit and might naively be expected to produce physical tachyons, to an alternate stable state where no physical tachyons exist. Once the tachyonic field reaches the minimum of the potential, its quanta are not tachyons any more but rather are ordinary particles with a positive mass-squared. This is a special case of the general rule, where unstable massive particles are formally described as having a
complex Complex commonly refers to: * Complexity, the behaviour of a system whose components interact in multiple ways so possible interactions are difficult to describe ** Complex system, a system composed of many components which may interact with each ...
mass, with the real part being their mass in the usual sense, and the imaginary part being the decay rate in
natural units In physics, natural units are physical units of measurement in which only universal physical constants are used as defining constants, such that each of these constants acts as a coherent unit of a quantity. For example, the elementary charge ma ...
. However, in quantum field theory, a particle (a "one-particle state") is roughly defined as a state which is constant over time; i.e., an eigenvalue of the
Hamiltonian Hamiltonian may refer to: * Hamiltonian mechanics, a function that represents the total energy of a system * Hamiltonian (quantum mechanics), an operator corresponding to the total energy of that system ** Dyall Hamiltonian, a modified Hamiltonian ...
. An unstable particle is a state which is only approximately constant over time; If it exists long enough to be measured, it can be formally described as having a complex mass, with the real part of the mass greater than its imaginary part. If both parts are of the same magnitude, this is interpreted as a resonance appearing in a scattering process rather than a particle, as it is considered not to exist long enough to be measured independently of the scattering process. In the case of a tachyon, the real part of the mass is zero, and hence no concept of a particle can be attributed to it. In a
Lorentz invariant In a relativistic theory of physics, a Lorentz scalar is an expression, formed from items of the theory, which evaluates to a scalar, invariant under any Lorentz transformation. A Lorentz scalar may be generated from e.g., the scalar product of ...
theory, the same formulas that apply to ordinary slower-than-light particles (sometimes called " bradyons" in discussions of tachyons) must also apply to tachyons. In particular the energy–momentum relation: :E^2 = p^2c^2 + m^2c^4 \; (where p is the relativistic momentum of the bradyon and m is its
rest mass The invariant mass, rest mass, intrinsic mass, proper mass, or in the case of bound systems simply mass, is the portion of the total mass of an object or system of objects that is independent of the overall motion of the system. More precisely, i ...
) should still apply, along with the formula for the total energy of a particle: :E = \frac. This equation shows that the total energy of a particle (bradyon or tachyon) contains a contribution from its rest mass (the "rest mass–energy") and a contribution from its motion, the kinetic energy. When ''v'' is larger than ''c'', the denominator in the equation for the energy is "imaginary", as the value under the radical is negative. Because the total energy must be
real Real may refer to: Currencies * Brazilian real (R$) * Central American Republic real * Mexican real * Portuguese real * Spanish real * Spanish colonial real Music Albums * ''Real'' (L'Arc-en-Ciel album) (2000) * ''Real'' (Bright album) (2010) ...
, the numerator must ''also'' be imaginary: i.e. the
rest mass The invariant mass, rest mass, intrinsic mass, proper mass, or in the case of bound systems simply mass, is the portion of the total mass of an object or system of objects that is independent of the overall motion of the system. More precisely, i ...
m must be imaginary, as a pure imaginary number divided by another pure imaginary number is a real number.


See also

*
Mass versus weight In common usage, the mass of an object is often referred to as its weight, though these are in fact different concepts and quantities. Nevertheless, one object will always weigh more than a second object, if the first object has greater mass, and t ...
*
Effective mass (spring–mass system) In a real spring–mass system, the spring has a non-negligible mass m. Since not all of the spring's length moves at the same velocity v as the suspended mass M, its kinetic energy is not equal to \tfrac m v^2. As such, m cannot be simply added t ...
* Effective mass (solid-state physics) * Extension (metaphysics) *
International System of Quantities The International System of Quantities (ISQ) consists of the quantities used in physics and in modern science in general, starting with basic quantities such as length and mass, and the relationships between those quantities. This system underli ...
*
2019 redefinition of SI base units In 2019, four of the seven SI base units specified in the International System of Quantities were redefined in terms of natural physical constants, rather than human artifacts such as the standard kilogram. Effective 20 May 2019, the 144 ...


Notes


References


External links

* * * * * * * Jim Baggott (27 September 2017)
The Concept of Mass
(video) published by the Royal Institution on
YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
. {{Authority control Physical quantities SI base quantities Moment (physics)