Mass

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 v•d•e

Not to be confused with matter.

This article is about the scientific concept. For the Liturgical Mass, see Mass (liturgy).

In physics, mass (from Ancient Greek: μᾶζα) commonly refers to any of three properties of
matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent:

 Inertial mass,
 active gravitational mass and
 passive gravitational mass.

Mass must be distinguished from matter in physics, however, since matter is a poorly-defined
concept, and although all types of agreed-upon matter exhibit mass, it is also the case that many
types of energy which are not matter— such as potential energy, kinetic energy, and trapped
electromagnetic radiation (photons)— also exhibit mass. Thus, all matter has the property of
mass, but not all mass is associated with identifiable matter.

In everyday usage, Mass is often taken to mean weight, but in scientific use, they refer to
different properties.

The inertial mass of an object determines its acceleration in the presence of an applied force.
According to Newton's second law of motion, if a body of fixed mass m is subjected to a force F,
its acceleration a is given by F/m.

A body's mass also determines the degree to which it generates or is affected by a gravitational
field. If a first body of mass m1 is placed at a distance r from a second body of mass m2, each
body experiences an attractive force F whose magnitude is

where G is the universal constant of gravitation, equal to 6.67×10−11 kg−1 m3 s−2. This is
sometimes referred to as gravitational mass (when a distinction is necessary, M is used to denote
the active gravitational mass and m the passive gravitational mass). Repeated experiments since
the 17th century have demonstrated that inertial and gravitational mass are equivalent; this is
entailed in the equivalence principle of general relativity.

Special relativity shows that rest mass (or invariant mass) and rest energy are essentially
equivalent, via the well-known relationship (E = mc2). This same equation also connects
relativistic mass and "relativistic energy" (total system energy). These are concepts that are
related to their "rest" counterparts, but they do not have the same value, in systems where there is
a net momentum. In order to deduce any of these four quantities from any of the others, in any
system which has a net momentum, an equation that takes momentum into account is needed.
Mass (so long as the type and definition of mass is agreed upon) is a conserved quantity over
time. From the viewpoint of any single unaccelerated observer, mass can neither be created or
destroyed, and special relativity does not change this understanding (though different observers
may not agree on how much mass is present, all agree that the amount does not change over
time). However, relativity adds the fact that all types of energy have an associated mass, and this
mass is added to systems when energy is added, and the associated mass is subtracted from
systems when the energy leaves. In such cases, the energy leaving or entering the system carries
the added or missing mass with it, since this energy itself has mass. Thus, mass remains
conserved when the location of all mass is taken into account.

On the surface of the Earth, the weight W of an object is related to its mass m by

where g is the Earth's gravitational field strength, equal to about 9.81 m s−2. An object's weight
depends on its environment, while its mass does not: an object with a mass of 50 kilograms
weighs 491 newtons on the surface of the Earth; on the surface of the Moon, the same object still
has a mass of 50 kilograms but weighs only 81.5 newtons.

Contents
[hide]

 1 Units of mass
 2 Summary of mass concepts and formalisms
 3 Summary of mass related phenomena
 4 Weight and amount
 5 Gravitational mass
o 5.1 Keplerian gravitational mass
o 5.2 Galilean gravitational field
o 5.3 Newtonian gravitational mass
 5.3.1 Newton's cannonball
 5.3.2 Universal gravitational mass and amount
 6 Inertial and gravitational mass
o 6.1 Inertial mass
o 6.2 Newtonian Gravitational mass
o 6.3 Equivalence of inertial and gravitational masses
 7 Mass and energy in special relativity
 8 Notes
 9 References
 10 External links

[edit] Units of mass

In the International System of Units (SI), mass is measured in kilograms (kg). The gram (g) is
1
⁄1000 of a kilogram.

Other units are accepted for use in SI:

 The tonne (t) is equal to 1000 kg.

 The electronvolt (eV) is primarily a unit of energy, but because of the mass-energy
equivalence it can also function as a unit of mass. In this context it is denoted eV/c2, or
simply as eV. The electronvolt is common in particle physics.
 The atomic mass unit (u) is defined so that a single carbon-12 atom has a mass of 12 u;
1 u is approximately 1.66×10−27 kg.[note 1] The atomic mass unit is convenient for
expressing the masses of atoms and molecules.

Outside the SI system, a variety of different mass units are used, depending on context, such as
the slug (sl), the pound (lb), the Planck mass (mP), and the solar mass (M⊙).

In normal situations, the weight of an object is proportional to its mass, which usually makes it
unproblematic to use the same unit for both concepts. However, the distinction between mass
and weight becomes important for measurements with a precision better than a few percent
(because of slight differences in the strength of the Earth's gravitational field at different places),
and for places far from the surface of the Earth, such as in space or on other planets.

A mass can sometimes be expressed in terms of length. The mass of a very small particle may be
identified with its inverse Compton wavelength (1 cm−1 ≈ 3.52×10−41 kg). The mass of a very
large star or black hole may be identified with its Schwarzschild radius (1 cm ≈ 6.73×1024 kg).

[edit] Summary of mass concepts and formalisms

Space Shuttle Phases
In classical mechanics, mass has a central role in determining the behavior of bodies. Newton's
second law relates the force F exerted in a body of mass m to the body's acceleration a:

Additionally, mass relates a body's momentum p to its velocity v:

and the body's kinetic energy Ek to its velocity:

In special relativity, relativistic mass is a formalism which accounts for relativistic effects by
having the mass increase with velocity.
 02a

Since energy is dependent on reference frame (upon the observer) it is convenient to formulate
the equations of physics in a way such that mass values are invariant (do not change) between
observers, and so the equations are independent of the observer. For a single particle, this
quantity is the rest mass; for a system of bound or unbound particles, this quantity is the invariant
mass. The invariant mass m of a body is related to its energy E and the magnitude of its
momentum p by

(1) … Space Shuttle.

where c is the speed of light.

Momentum (2)
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This article is about momentum in physics. For other uses, see Momentum (disambiguation).

Classical mechanics

Newton's Second Law

History of classical mechanics ·

Timeline of classical
mechanics

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Space · Time · Velocity ·
Speed · Mass ·
Acceleration · Gravity ·
Force · Impulse · Torque /
Moment / Couple ·
Momentum · Angular
momentum · Inertia ·
Moment of inertia ·
Reference frame · Energy ·
Kinetic energy · Potential
energy · Mechanical work ·
Virtual work · D'Alembert's
principle

[show]Core topics
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v•d•e

Momentum

SI symbol: p

SI unit: kg · m/s

Conserved: yes

Derivations from other quantities: p = mv

p = γm0v
Title page of the 1st edition of Isaac Newton's Principia defining the laws of motion.

In classical mechanics, momentum (pl. momenta; SI unit kg·m/s, or, equivalently, N·s) is the
product of the mass and velocity of an object (p = mv). In relativistic mechanics, this quantity is
multiplied by the Lorentz factor. Momentum is sometimes referred to as linear momentum to
distinguish it from the related subject of angular momentum. Linear momentum is a vector
quantity, since it has a direction as well as a magnitude. Angular momentum is a pseudovector
quantity because it gains an additional sign flip under an improper rotation. The total momentum
of any group of objects remains the same unless outside forces act on the objects (law of
conservation of momentum).

Momentum is a conserved quantity, meaning that the total momentum of any closed system (one
not affected by external forces) cannot change. Although originally expressed in Newton's
Second Law, it also holds in special relativity, and with appropriate definitions a (generalized)
momentum conservation law holds in electrodynamics, quantum mechanics, quantum field
theory, and general relativity.

Contents
[hide]

 1 History of the concept

 2 Linear momentum of a particle
 3 Linear momentum of a system of particles
o 3.1 Relating to mass and velocity
o 3.2 Relating to force - General equations of motion
 4 Conservation of linear momentum
o 4.1 Elastic collisions
 4.1.1 In one dimension
  4.1.2 In multiple dimensions
o 4.2 Perfectly inelastic collisions
o 4.3 Coefficient of Restitution
o 4.4 Explosions
 5 Modern definitions of momentum
o 5.1 Momentum in relativistic mechanics
 5.1.1 Four-vector formulation
 5.1.2 Generalization of momentum
o 5.2 Momentum in quantum mechanics
o 5.3 Momentum in electromagnetism
 6 Analogies between heat, mass, and momentum transfer
 7 See also
 8 Notes
 9 References
 10 External links

[edit] History of the concept

Mōmentum was not merely the motion, which was mōtus, but was the power residing in a
moving object, captured by today's mathematical definitions. A mōtus, "movement", was a stage
in any sort of change,[1] while velocitas, "swiftness", captured only speed. The concept of
momentum in classical mechanics was originated by a number of great thinkers and
experimentalists. The first of these was Byzantine philosopher John Philoponus, in his
commentary to Aristotle´s Physics. As regards the natural motion of bodies falling through a
medium, Aristotle's verdict that the speed is proportional to the weight of the moving bodies and
indirectly proportional to the density of the medium is disproved by Philoponus through appeal
to the same kind of experiment that Galileo was to carry out centuries later.[2] This idea was
refined by the European philosophers Peter Olivi and Jean Buridan. Buridan referred to impetus
being proportional to the weight times the speed.[3][4] Moreover, Buridan´s theory was different
to his predecessor´s in that he did not consider impetus to be self dissipating, asserting that a
body would be arrested by the forces of air resistance and gravity which might be opposing its
impetus.[5]

René Descartes believed that the total "quantity of motion" in the universe is conserved, where
the quantity of motion is understood as the product of size and speed. This should not be read as
a statement of the modern law of momentum, since he had no concept of mass as distinct from
weight and size, and more importantly he believed that it is speed rather than velocity that is
conserved. So for Descartes if a moving object were to bounce off a surface, changing its
direction but not its speed, there would be no change in its quantity of motion.[6] Galileo, later, in
his Two New Sciences, used the Italian word "impeto."

The question has been much debated as to what Isaac Newton contributed to the concept. The
answer is apparently nothing, except to state more fully and with better mathematics what was
already known. Yet for scientists, this was the death knell for Aristotelian physics and supported
other progressive scientific theories (i.e., Kepler's laws of planetary motion). Conceptually, the
first and second of Newton's Laws of Motion had already been stated by John Wallis in his 1670
work, Mechanica sive De Motu, Tractatus Geometricus: "the initial state of the body, either of
rest or of motion, will persist" and "If the force is greater than the resistance, motion will
result".[7] Wallis uses momentum and vis for force. Newton's Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia
Mathematica, when it was first published in 1687, showed a similar casting around for words to
use for the mathematical momentum. His Definition II[8] defines quantitas motus, "quantity of
motion", as "arising from the velocity and quantity of matter conjointly", which identifies it as
momentum.[9] Thus when in Law II he refers to mutatio motus, "change of motion", being
proportional to the force impressed, he is generally taken to mean momentum and not motion.[10]
It remained only to assign a standard term to the quantity of motion. The first use of
"momentum" in its proper mathematical sense is not clear but by the time of Jenning's
Miscellanea in 1721, four years before the final edition of Newton's Principia Mathematica,
momentum M or "quantity of motion" was being defined for students as "a rectangle", the
product of Q and V, where Q is "quantity of material" and V is "velocity", s/t.[11]

Some languages, such as French still lack a single term for momentum, and use a phrase such as
the literal translation of "quantity of motion".

Time (3)
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For other uses, see Time (disambiguation).
The flow of sand in an hourglass can be used to keep track of elapsed time. It also concretely
represents the present as being between the past and the future.

Pocket watches are used to keep track of time.

Time is a part of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of
processes and the intervals between events, and to quantify the motions of objects. Time has
been a major subject of religion, philosophy, and science, but defining it in a non-controversial
manner applicable to all fields of study has consistently eluded the greatest scholars.

Time is one of the seven fundamental physical quantities in the International System of Units.
Time is used to define other quantities — such as velocity — so defining time in terms of such
quantities would result in circularity of definition.[1] An operational definition of time, wherein
one says that observing a certain number of repetitions of one or another standard cyclical event
(such as the passage of a free-swinging pendulum) constitutes one standard unit such as the
second, is highly useful in the conduct of both advanced experiments and everyday affairs of life.
The operational definition leaves aside the question whether there is something called time, apart
from the counting activity just mentioned, that flows and that can be measured. Investigations of
a single continuum called spacetime bring questions about space into questions about time,
questions that have their roots in the works of early students of natural philosophy.

Among prominent philosophers, there are two distinct viewpoints on time. One view is that time
is part of the fundamental structure of the universe, a dimension in which events occur in
sequence. Sir Isaac Newton subscribed to this realist view, and hence it is sometimes referred to
as Newtonian time.[2][3] Time travel, in this view, becomes a possibility as other "times" persist
like frames of a film strip, spread out across the time line. The opposing view is that time does
not refer to any kind of "container" that events and objects "move through", nor to any entity that
"flows", but that it is instead part of a fundamental intellectual structure (together with space and
number) within which humans sequence and compare events. This second view, in the tradition
of Gottfried Leibniz[4] and Immanuel Kant,[5][6] holds that time is neither an event nor a thing,
and thus is not itself measurable nor can it be travelled.

Temporal measurement has occupied scientists and technologists, and was a prime motivation in
navigation and astronomy. Periodic events and periodic motion have long served as standards for
units of time. Examples include the apparent motion of the sun across the sky, the phases of the
moon, the swing of a pendulum, and the beat of a heart. Currently, the international unit of time,
the second, is defined in terms of radiation emitted by caesium atoms (see below). Time is also
of significant social importance, having economic value ("time is money") as well as personal
value, due to an awareness of the limited time in each day and in human life spans.

Ray Cummings, an early writer of science fiction, wrote in 1922, "Time… is what keeps
everything from happening at once",[7] a sentence repeated by scientists such as C. J.
Overbeck,[8] and John Archibald Wheeler.[9][10]

Gravitation (4)
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"Gravity" redirects here. For other uses, see Gravity (disambiguation).
This article is about the natural phenomenon. For other uses, see Gravitation (disambiguation).

Gravitation keeps the planets in orbit around the Sun. (Not to scale)

Gravitation, or gravity, is a natural phenomenon in which objects with mass attract one another.
In everyday life, gravitation is most familiar as the agent that gives weight to objects with mass
and causes them to fall to the ground when dropped. Gravitation causes dispersed matter to
coalesce, thus accounting for the existence of the Earth, the Sun, and most of the macroscopic
objects in the universe. Gravitation is responsible for keeping the Earth and the other planets in
their orbits around the Sun; for keeping the Moon in its orbit around the Earth; for the formation
of tides; for natural convection, by which fluid flow occurs under the influence of a density
gradient and gravity; for heating the interiors of forming stars and planets to very high
temperatures; and for various other phenomena observed on Earth.

Gravitation is one of the four fundamental interactions of nature, along with the strong force,
electromagnetism and the weak force. Modern physics describes gravitation using the general
theory of relativity, in which gravitation is a consequence of the curvature of spacetime which
governs the motion of inertial objects. The simpler Newton's law of universal gravitation
provides an accurate approximation for most calculations.

Contents
[hide]

 1 History of gravitational theory

o 1.1 Scientific revolution
o 1.2 Newton's theory of gravitation
o 1.3 Equivalence principle
o 1.4 General relativity
o 1.5 Gravity and quantum mechanics
 2 Specifics
o 2.1 Earth's gravity
o 2.2 Equations for a falling body near the surface of the Earth
o 2.3 Gravity and astronomy
o 2.4 Gravitational radiation
 3 Anomalies and discrepancies
 4 Alternative theories
o 4.1 Historical alternative theories
o 4.2 Recent alternative theories
 5 See also
 6 Notes
 7 Footnotes
 8 References
 9 Further reading

Force (5)
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See also Force (disambiguation).
Forces are also described as a push or pull on an object. They can be due to phenomena such as
gravity, magnetism, or anything else that might cause a mass to accelerate.

Classical mechanics

Newton's Second Law

History of classical mechanics ·

Timeline of classical
mechanics

[show]Branches
[show]Formulations
[hide]Fundamental
concepts
Space · Time · Velocity ·
Speed · Mass ·
Acceleration · Gravity ·
Force · Impulse · Torque /
Moment / Couple ·
Momentum · Angular
momentum · Inertia ·
Moment of inertia ·
Reference frame · Energy ·
Kinetic energy · Potential
energy · Mechanical work ·
Virtual work · D'Alembert's
principle

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In physics, a force is any influence that causes a free body to undergo a change in speed, a
change in direction, or a change in shape. Force can also be described by intuitive concepts such
as a push or pull that can cause an object with mass to change its velocity (which includes to
begin moving from a state of rest), i.e., to accelerate, or which can cause a flexible object to
deform. A force has both magnitude and direction, making it a vector quantity. Newton's second
law, F=ma, can be formulated to state that an object with a constant mass will accelerate in
proportion to the net force acting upon and in inverse proportion to its mass, an approximation
which breaks down near the speed of light. Newton's original formulation is exact, and does not
break down: this version states that the net force acting upon an object is equal to the rate at
which its momentum changes.[1]

Related concepts to accelerating forces include thrust, increasing the velocity of the object, drag,
decreasing the velocity of any object, and torque, causing changes in rotational speed about an
axis. Forces which do not act uniformly on all parts of a body will also cause mechanical
stresses,[2] a technical term for influences which cause deformation of matter. While mechanical
stress can remain embedded in a solid object, gradually deforming it, mechanical stress in a fluid
determines changes in its pressure and volume.[3][4]

Philosophers in antiquity used the concept of force in the study of stationary and moving objects
and simple machines, but thinkers such as Aristotle and Archimedes retained fundamental errors
in understanding force. In part this was due to an incomplete understanding of the sometimes
non-obvious force of friction, and a consequently inadequate view of the nature of natural
motion[5] A fundamental error was the belief that a force is requied to maintain motion, even at a
constant velocity. Most of the previous misunderstandings about motion and force were
eventually corrected by Sir Isaac Newton; with his mathematical insight, he formulated laws of
motion that remained unchanged for nearly three hundred years.[4] By the early 20th century,
Einstein developed a theory of relativity that correctly predicted the action of forces on objects
with increasing momenta near the speed of light, and also provided insight into the forces
produced by gravitation and inertia.

With modern insights into quantum mechanics and technology that can accelerate particles close
to the speed of light, particle physics has devised a Standard Model to describe forces between
particles smaller than atoms. The Standard Model predicts that exchange particles called gauge
bosons are the fundamental means by which forces are emitted and absorbed. Only four main
interactions are known: in order of decreasing strength, they are: strong, electromagnetic, weak,
and gravitational.[3] High-energy particle physics observations made during the 1970s and 1980s
confirmed that the weak and electromagnetic forces are expressions of a more fundamental
electroweak interaction.[6]

Contents
[hide]

 1 Pre-Newtonian concepts
 2 Newtonian mechanics
o 2.1 Newton's first law
 o 2.2 Newton's second law
o 2.3 Newton's third law
 3 Descriptions
o 3.1 Equilibria
 3.1.1 Static equilibrium
 3.1.2 Dynamical equilibrium
o 3.2 Special relativity
o 3.3 Feynman diagrams
 4 Fundamental models
o 4.1 Gravity
o 4.2 Electromagnetic forces
o 4.3 Nuclear forces
 5 Non-fundamental forces
o 5.1 Normal force
o 5.2 Friction
o 5.3 Tension
o 5.4 Elastic force
o 5.5 Continuum mechanics
o 5.6 Fictitious forces
 6 Rotations and torque
o 6.1 Centripetal force
 7 Kinematic integrals
 8 Potential energy
o 8.1 Conservative forces
o 8.2 Nonconservative forces
 9 Units of measurement
 10 Notes
 11 References
 12 External links

Impulse (6)
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Look up impulse in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Contents
[hide]

 1 Science
  2 Media
 3 Business
 4 Other

Impulse may refer to:

[edit] Science
 Impulse (physics), in mechanics, something that changes the momentum of an object; the
integral of a force over time
 Specific impulse, the change in momentum per unit mass of propellant of a propulsion
system
 Impulse function, a mathematical function of an infinitely high amplitude and
infinitesimal duration
 Impulse response, a system's output when presented with the impulse function in
Electrical Engineering
 Impulse (psychology), a wish or urge, particularly a sudden one

Speed (7)
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"Fast" and "Slow" redirect here. For other uses, see Fast (disambiguation) and Slow
(disambiguation).
This article is about the property of moving bodies. For other uses, see Speed (disambiguation).

Classical mechanics

Newton's Second Law

History of classical mechanics ·

Timeline of classical
mechanics

[show]Branches
[show]Formulations
 [hide]Fundamental
concepts
Space · Time · Velocity ·
Speed · Mass ·
Acceleration · Gravity ·
Force · Impulse · Torque /
Moment / Couple ·
Momentum · Angular
momentum · Inertia ·
Moment of inertia ·
Reference frame · Energy ·
Kinetic energy · Potential
energy · Mechanical work ·
Virtual work · D'Alembert's
principle

[show]Core topics
[show]Scientists
v•d•e

In kinematics, the speed of an object is the magnitude of its velocity (the rate of change of its
position); it is thus a scalar quantity. The average speed of an object in an interval of time is the
distance traveled by the object divided by the duration of the interval; the instantaneous speed is
the limit of the average speed as the duration of the time interval approaches zero .

Like velocity, speed has the dimensions of a length divided by a time; the SI unit of speed is the
meter per second, but the most usual unit of speed in everyday usage is the kilometer per hour or,
in the USA and the UK, miles per hour. For air and marine travel the knot is commonly used.

The fastest possible speed at which energy or information can travel, according to special
relativity, is the speed of light in vacuum c = 299,792,458 meters per second, approximately
1079 million kilometers per hour (671,000,000 mph). Matter cannot quite reach the speed of
light, as this would require an infinite amount of energy.

Contents
[hide]
 1 Definition
 2 Units
 3 Examples of different speeds
 4 See also
 5 References