Re: How do you visualize mass?
- From: "PD" <TheDraperFamily@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 9 Sep 2006 05:27:44 -0700
Phil Gardner wrote:
Golden Boar wrote:
Do you visualize mass as a solid little ball?
Do you visualize mass as a little hollow sphere?
Or do you visualize mass in some other way?
How do you picture the mass of an electron, for example?
I would like to discuss the pros and cons of how people visualize mass.
For example, if you think of the mass of an electron and a proton as
being a solid little ball, then how do you account for the fact that
the mass of a hydrogen atom is less than the mass of the electron + the
mass of the proton?
I visualise it this way:
The mass, m, of a particle is the volume integral through all space of
its mass density, rhom. This density is a function of the particle's
wave function, psi, and for a particle at rest is spherically
symmetric. At least for R > 10^-10 m rhom varies as |psi|^2.
The mass, m, is a scalar variable that is equal to the rest mass, m',
only in the rest frame of an isolated particle. In any ground state of
a two body system, such as your hydrogen atom, the mass of the atom
m(H) = m(p) + m(e) < m'(p) + m'(e), with m(p)/m(e) = m'(p)/m'(e). In
this ground state all of the mass and all of the potential energy of
the pair is localised in the two particles.
The probability density function is NOT, afaik, related to the mass
density of a particle.
Or are you saying that the collapse of the wavefunction means that the
*physical density* of a particle increases dramatically at the collapse
point?
PD
Phil Gardner
.
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