Yeah, that sort of depends on the level of physics you’re talking about. regardless, it’s still a property of stuff even if that stuff is not always matter. if you want to go off on the weeds on that, go for it.
even so, energy is not something that exists, but a quantified attribute of things that do exist.
Mass distorts spacetime because that’s a thing that mass does, we can’t explain it any better than we can explain WHY apples fall from trees, we just have very detailed models for. HOW it works, and anything that has energy bends spacetime in the same way that mass does.
What I never understood is why the electric field doesn’t distort spacetime more than gravity. The force between 2 electrons is like 4*10^42 times stronger than gravity. So a tiny electric field should cause the same spacetime bending as a massive object.
True. The em field is significantly more energetic, meaning that it contributes more to the stress energy tensor than the force of gravity
But recall that the force of gravity is the momentum change “due to” the curvature of spacetime. The fact that the force of gravity can bend spacetime at all is a really weird second-order perturbative effect.
These perturbative effects are typically described with a quantum field theory, but gravity has been thus far notably difficult to quantize.
the simple forms of conservation you probably learned in school are not entirely accurate. you probably learned that neither energy not matter can be created or destroyed; whatever you do, the mass you begin with will be the same as the mass you end with, and the same is true, separately, for energy. that’s not actually true; mass can be converted into energy, and vice versa. the correct form of conservation is that the combined mass-energy is constant. mass can be destroyed, but only if a proportional amount of energy is created. the coefficient of that proportionality is the square of the speed of light. that’s what E=mc² means. that’s how nuclear weapons work, and why they’re so powerful. c² is obviously a pretty big value, so when a small amount of matter is destroyed, it creates a large amount of energy
similarly, energy can be converted into mass, but doing so makes it much “smaller.” c² units of energy will become 1 unit of mass. and mass, of course, interacts with space-time
Mass is a property of matter, they’re not the same thing.
A water molecule is the same matter as two hydrogen atoms and an oxygen, yet the molecule has less mass. The difference comes from the energy released when the molecule is formed. Fusion is the same, forcing two atoms together releases a neutron with lots of energy. Same matter, less mass.
It’s the opposite with fission. One atom splits into two and two really fast neutrons, and the total mass is less than the original atom. The matter isn’t destroyed, but some of its mass is converted into energy.
Matter can be destroyed by annihilating it with antimatter, but that hardly counts because we have to make the antimatter by turning energy back into mass and that also creates an equal amount of matter.
Through mass/energy equivalence, E=mc2. Energy distorts spacetime the same as its equivalent rest mass.
To clarify, energy isn’t a “thing” that exists. It’s a property of matter, and so is mass.
So spacetime are only related in that matter exists in spacetime, and can influence it in ways we don’t (or at least I don’t,) really understand.
Energy is not only a property of matter. Photons have energy, no mass, and are not matter but in fact force carrier particles.
Yeah, that sort of depends on the level of physics you’re talking about. regardless, it’s still a property of stuff even if that stuff is not always matter. if you want to go off on the weeds on that, go for it.
even so, energy is not something that exists, but a quantified attribute of things that do exist.
Thanks for that link.
Anything that occupies space and has weight is matter. And yes, every matter exists in time.
I don’t think through is the right term.
Mass distorts spacetime because that’s a thing that mass does, we can’t explain it any better than we can explain WHY apples fall from trees, we just have very detailed models for. HOW it works, and anything that has energy bends spacetime in the same way that mass does.
What I never understood is why the electric field doesn’t distort spacetime more than gravity. The force between 2 electrons is like 4*10^42 times stronger than gravity. So a tiny electric field should cause the same spacetime bending as a massive object.
It does. The energy density of the em field will contribute to the stress-energy tensor that changes the metric of spacetime.
Though the force itself is irrelevant
But force is a measure of the rate at which energy is transferred over a distance.
So if one force is greater than another and the distance is the same, then the energy is greater in the case of the greater force.
True. The em field is significantly more energetic, meaning that it contributes more to the stress energy tensor than the force of gravity
But recall that the force of gravity is the momentum change “due to” the curvature of spacetime. The fact that the force of gravity can bend spacetime at all is a really weird second-order perturbative effect.
These perturbative effects are typically described with a quantum field theory, but gravity has been thus far notably difficult to quantize.
But didn’t you just say that the electric field curves it too?
The electric field curves it insofar as any energy curves it. The force exerted by the em field is independent of this curvature, though.
Don’t understand this bit.
In plain terms, energy has gravity.
Energy has gravity ??
the simple forms of conservation you probably learned in school are not entirely accurate. you probably learned that neither energy not matter can be created or destroyed; whatever you do, the mass you begin with will be the same as the mass you end with, and the same is true, separately, for energy. that’s not actually true; mass can be converted into energy, and vice versa. the correct form of conservation is that the combined mass-energy is constant. mass can be destroyed, but only if a proportional amount of energy is created. the coefficient of that proportionality is the square of the speed of light. that’s what E=mc² means. that’s how nuclear weapons work, and why they’re so powerful. c² is obviously a pretty big value, so when a small amount of matter is destroyed, it creates a large amount of energy
similarly, energy can be converted into mass, but doing so makes it much “smaller.” c² units of energy will become 1 unit of mass. and mass, of course, interacts with space-time
You’re on the right track.
Mass is a property of matter, they’re not the same thing.
A water molecule is the same matter as two hydrogen atoms and an oxygen, yet the molecule has less mass. The difference comes from the energy released when the molecule is formed. Fusion is the same, forcing two atoms together releases a neutron with lots of energy. Same matter, less mass.
It’s the opposite with fission. One atom splits into two and two really fast neutrons, and the total mass is less than the original atom. The matter isn’t destroyed, but some of its mass is converted into energy.
Matter can be destroyed by annihilating it with antimatter, but that hardly counts because we have to make the antimatter by turning energy back into mass and that also creates an equal amount of matter.
This is a very interesting theory.
You explain beautifully the reason why Shakti (energy) is the Divine Consort of Shiva (the overseer of destruction) according to Vedic philosophy.