Showing posts with label mass. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mass. Show all posts

Difference between "Mass" "Matter" and "Energy"

Well the fancy of the subject "physics" is unexplainable. Understanding of basic terminology gives immense satisfaction. 

How many of you could differentiate the three terms "Matter", "Mass" & "Energy" which are essential for beginning understanding of physics? 

Let us start explaining things:- "Mass" is an attribute and not a physical thing. Mass is the attribute "inertia" of a physical object or of what ever is contained in a specified region of space. 

"Inertia" is the inherent reluctance to undergo a change in velocity. If one consults the research documents of decade 1900-10, when Einstein and others developed the equation E=mc2, one finds that for those physicists- the word "Mass" was synonym for "inertia". 

"Matter" is tangible stuff; What you can touch and sense with your hands and so a physical thing.Hence all matter has inertia and hence has mass. 

 "Energy" is the ability to do work. It is an attribute to physical object or of whatever is contained in a specified region of space. Three general forms for existence of energy are "Kinetic", "potential", "Radiant". "Kinetic" is the energy associated with motion. 
"Potential energy" is the energy that has potential for being converted to kinetic energy. 
"Radiant energy" is energy of Electromagnetic waves. 

Take a stone and throw into air. The stone which you are able to collect it from ground has got matter as you have touched and sensed it. While moving in air the stone doesn't get blown by wind breeze etc and does possess "inertia". It is moving with a velocity and does has Kinetic energy, at the same time it is at a varying height from ground and hence possess gravitational potential energy.Thus the stone in air has got partly kinetic energy and partly potential energy. Thus "mass' and "energy" exist as attributes of a physical system, just as do color or shape. Mass and energy exist in the same fashion and matter exists in different fashion. Hope this benefits the student community.......Have a nice day

Is there energy associated with intrinsic inertia, the rest mass?

We could have the object at rest to annihilate with an "anti-object", producing radiation possessing energy.
So, yes, there is energy associated with the rest mass.

while creating an atom, various particles like electrons, protons, neutrons are to be brought in together. Every bit of energy that goes into creating the object would be accompanied by an increase in inertia.

According to relation E = ΜC^2

The following figure sketches this symbolically. Starting from zero for both the object's energy and its inertia and adding up increments, we emerge with E=MC^2.



The attribute energy is always accompanied by attribute inertia.

In 1905, Einstein summarized his theoretical discovery with the sentence,

" The mass [i.e inertia] of a body is a measure of its energy content."

Energy , in all forms has property of inertia, the reluctance to undergo a change in velocity. The more energy that went into forming a body, the more inertia the body has.