Re: Mass and Potential Energy


Tom Roberts wrote:
actionintegral@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
When one speaks of the relativistic mass of an object, should one
include the potential energy of the object?

First, the term "relativistic mass" is an anachronism, and has been
found to be more confusing than it is worth, especially to newbies. In
particular, it does not appear in any fundamental theory of physics
(which are all based on SR). In SR and GR, the mass of an object is the
norm of its 4-momentum, and is thus an invariant. " [snip]>
Tom Roberts

Not in GR, it is impossible to define mass that way since 4-vectors are
found in different tangent spaces.

I suggest GRists try to find a better definition of mass that is
convincing.

Mike

.

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