Jed Rothwell wrote:
> Edmund Storms writes: > > > Mass and energy are only equivalent when energy is converted to > mass. When energy > > exists only as energy, it does not have the property of mass. > > That would be potential energy, I suppose, and my understanding is that it > does have mass. When you wind a watch, raise a rock up, or charge a > battery, you add a tiny amount to the mass of the object. Any form of > energy production always reduces mass. What you are saying is more a matter of faith than experimental fact. Granted, the photon appears to be attracted by gravity, hence acts like mass. However, people have found other ways to explain this observation. As far as I know, no unambiguous experimental observation shows that energy in any form acts like mass or would exhibit detectable gravity if in a high enough concentration. I say this knowing that a photon falling through a gravity field appears to change its energy. The issue all of this discussion addresses is whether a very high concentration of ZPE could be detected because it would acquire the properties of mass, i.e gravity and inertia. Perhaps other people have some thoughts on this idea. > > > If this energy is like light or heat, it must originate somewhere, > presumably in the sun and other stars. The sun's energy production is all > accounted for, as far as I know, except perhaps for a few neutrinos. Presumably the ZPE is part of the universe just like the mass we see. It doesn't originate anywhere, it just is. If you like the Big Bang approach, you can say it was left over from the Big Bang, being energy that has not yet been converted into mass. If you like the Steady-State approach you can say it is the reservoir from which mass forms and into which mass goes when it converts to energy by natural processes. It is the other side of the equilibrium reaction that keeps the universe in balance. Of course, some of this energy is at a low enough frequency that we can see it with our primitive detectors, but that small part is only leakage (or the edge of the frequency distribution) from a huge reservoir. You might say, we are surrounded by dark matter as well as by dark energy. Ed > > > My knowledge of relativity and ZPE combined would barely fill a postcard, > so perhaps I am missing something here. > > - Jed
