30-April-2007, 10:39 PM
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 1,340
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Quote:
Originally Posted by publiusr
If the photon has any mass at all--then the speed of light isn't c, but just under it--with the unreachable speed not shared by any particle?
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Maybe it is a good idea to talk about mass. I’ll say some things that are true in the ISU and some things that I think are true in the mainstream and see if there is any discussion.
Mass in the ISU is the same in any gravitational field, but weight can be very different because the strength of gravitational fields can be very different. Gravity determines the weight of mass. I think this is the same in the mainstream.
Matter in the ISU is composed of elementary energy particles. This might also be true of matter in the mainstream if there is success in the search for a Grand Unification Theory and a unifying particle to go with it, but the mainstream does not go so far as to say so yet.
The benchmark difference between the ISU and the mainstream right now is that in the ISU there is a perfect background from which matter forms and within which matter exists. This perfect background has energy density because it contains energy in the form of EEPs.
In the ISU, as matter is formed there are three particles of interest at the point of abundant matter formation and many particles of interest as ISU nucleosynthesis proceeds. At the point of abundant matter formation protons from, electrons from around protons, and electrons gather energy from the background and emit photons. There is a flow of EEPs from the background into mass and out as photons.
Now what does that say about mass? That the proton and electron have mass is clear because they exert and react to gravity in the ISU and in the mainstream. But then there is the photon which is composed of a small fraction of the energy of an electron and is composed of a grouping of EEPs. Does the photon have mass in the ISU?
Photons react to mass but do not exert gravity themselves. So in the ISU they have mass to the extent that they can be accelerated by gravity, but they do not have mass because they are not attracted to each other since there is no flow of EEPs through them like there is through mass.
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