----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Baker" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, June 09, 2003 1:50 PM
Subject: Re: Picking apart the Matrix - spoilers


> Dan said:
>
> >> Yea, but that's just becasue the force of gravity at the sun is
> >> greater. An ounce of flesh on earth has far more mass than the
> >> average
> >
> > ounce of material in the sun.  (weight = mass*gravitational force)
>
> Is an "ounce" a unit of mass or weight?

Weight.  An ounce, in the US, is 1/16th of a pound.  So, there is more
matter in the average ounce of material on the earth than the average ounce
of material on the sun.

>I never did grasp those old
> units. In any case, surely what you meant to say is "a kilogram of
> flesh on Earth has more gravitational potential energy than a kilogram
> of material in the sun".

No, what I meant to say was that the total energy in an average ounce of
material on the earth is greater than the total energy of an average ounce
of material on the sun, because the mass of the material on the earth would
be so much greater.  This is true in virtually every inertial reference
frame with E^2= p^2 + m^2 (using units that allow us to set c=1).  It is
certainly true in the inertial reference frame of the entire solar system.

Dan M.


_______________________________________________
http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l

Reply via email to