-----Original Message----- From: Vibrator ! <mrvibrat...@gmail.com> To: vortex-l <vortex-l@eskimo.com> Sent: Wed, Mar 16, 2016 10:34 pm Subject: Re: [Vo]:Re: EM Drive(s) >If i slide my beer across the table, it could land on the floor, or my lap. >Its PE depends on which part of the desk i knock it off, so does that PE's >corresponding relativistic mass fluctuate as i move it around?<
The initial potential energy is the same regardless of how much you allow to be converted into other forms. If the beer drops a greater distance toward the center of the earth, then more of it is used up and converted into other forms of energy. An observer from outside the closed system would not detect an overall mass decrease unless some form of that total energy escapes the system. This is very similar to what is seen with an electron orbiting an atomic nucleus. Light is emitted when the potential energy of the overall atomic system is reduced. Before the light is emitted the mass of the atomic system could in principle be measured. The loss in mass from the system would exactly match the energy contained within the light plus and kinetic energy due to atomic recoil. An outside observer of the beer and Earth system would see the same effects taking place. If you used energy contained for example within a spring to raise your beer, he would not detect any net change to the system mass. You tend to think of nuclear energy as being somehow different, but that is not the way I see it. Nuclear mass could also be used to generate electricity which then raises your beer. The effect is identical to the outside observer, he see no net change to the closed system mass again unless some form of radiation leaves as a result of the nuclear reaction. The bottom line is that potential energy due to position of the beer relative to the center of the earth is just one form of energy which can be interchanged with mass according to Einstein's equation. Dave
