Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Inertial Mass Separate From Gravitational Mass?

Posted by Soulskill on from the what-an-interesting-mass-effect dept.

CPerdue writes with this excerpt from the MIT arXiv blog: "The equivalence principle is one of the more fascinating ideas in modern science. It asserts that gravitational mass and inertial mass are identical. Einstein put it like this: the gravitational force we experience on Earth is identical to the force we would experience were we sitting in a spaceship accelerating at 1g. Newton might have said that the m in F=ma is the same as the ms in F=Gm1m2/r^2. ... All that changes today with the extraordinary work of Endre Kajari at the University of Ulm in Germany and a few buddies. They show how it is possible to create situations in the quantum world in which the effects of inertial and gravitational mass must be different. In fact, they show that these differences can be arbitrarily large."

7 of 405 comments (clear)

  1. Inertial Dampeners??? by bfmorgan · · Score: 5, Funny

    Would this lead to science fictions "Inertial Dampeners"?

    --
    I hope this caused some synapses to fire.
    1. Re:Inertial Dampeners??? by AdmiralXyz · · Score: 5, Funny

      That's "dampers", unless you're talking about devices that make the bridge slightly moist when the ship is subject to acceleration.

      --
      Dislike the Electoral College? Lobby your state to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.
    2. Re:Inertial Dampeners??? by demonbug · · Score: 5, Funny

      That's "dampers", unless you're talking about devices that make the bridge slightly moist when the ship is subject to acceleration.

      We call those red-shirts around here.

  2. Re:Next stop: Arisia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The technology lens itself very well to that.

    I sea what you mean.

  3. I would submit.... by Count+Fenring · · Score: 5, Funny

    I would submit, courteously, that your mother's inertial and gravitic masses are arbitrarily large.

    1. Re:I would submit.... by jspenguin1 · · Score: 5, Funny

      You mean this one from 2004?

  4. Re:Next stop: Arisia by gd2shoe · · Score: 5, Funny

    Your comment will go over the heads of many, but ...

    Dude. Nice one.

    Oh, come on now. You must have meant "Nice won."

    --
    I won't join Slashcott. OTOH, If Beta goes live, I just won't be back until it's fixed. Sorry Dice.