Why couldnt you have negative mass?

Post #52,951 by boxley 9/24/02 12:26:55 AM Reply	Why couldnt you have negative mass? Mass is measured in the medium is it not? If I can count to -10 then I should be able to weigh to -10. If there is a negative and a positive electrical/magnetic field there darn sure out to be a neg/pos gravitational field which would bind a lot of physics. thanx, bill will work for cash and other incentives [link\|http://home.tampabay.rr.com/boxley/resume/Resume.html\|skill set] qui mori didicit servire dedidicit
Post #52,989 by deSitter 9/24/02 10:02:21 AM Reply	Re: Why couldnt you have negative mass? Positivity of energy is, you might say, the most cherished idea in physics, so people are reluctant to give it up. You'd have to redo everything. The idea of negative mass in itself is not very interesting, but the idea that mass has phase, like light, is. So "negative" means having a phase of 180 while "positive" means 0. Now however there are in-between states with any phase. Matter is then one thing instead of two. In the everyday realm, nearby matter all has the same phase. In extreme conditions the phase differences can become manifest. -drl
Post #52,990 by deSitter 9/24/02 10:09:45 AM Reply	..also.. In ordinary gravity, everything attracts everything else because the basic field is a (second rank symmetric) tensor. In electromagnetism, the basic field is a vector, and that is why polar charges are possible. To have gravity with polarity, one needs a theory that has both a vector and a tensor field. Hermann Weyl worked out such a theory just after Einstein announced his theory of gravity, but it doesn't work out in a 4-d spacetime with separate sources. The idea however is so perfect that it has to be right in some context. -drl
Post #53,079 by folkert 9/24/02 6:08:02 PM Reply	Why couldnt you have negative mass? Ahhhh... We already have that.... Me... I am about as Negative a MASS of blubber can get... ;) Really now... you'd expect more from me... but not this time!!!! `greg - Grand-Master Artist in IT, curley95@attbi.com -- [link\|http://www.iwethey.org/ed_curry/\|REMEMBER ED CURRY!!!] Your friendly Homeland Security Officer reminds: Hold Thumbprint to Screen for 5 seconds, we'll take the imprint, or Just continue to type on your keyboard, and we'll just sample your DNA.`

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