Page:Eddington A. Space Time and Gravitation. 1920.djvu/78

62 are essentially the same thing, or, at the most, two aspects of the same thing. It must be remembered that on this view the greater part of the mass of matter is due to concealed energy, which is not as yet releasable.

The question whether electrical energy not bound to electric charges has mass, is answered in the affirmative in the case of light. Light has mass. Presumably also gravitational energy has mass; or, if not, mass will be created when, as often happens, gravitational energy is converted into kinetic energy. The mass of the whole (negative) gravitational energy of the earth is of the order minus a billion tons.

The theoretical increase of the mass of an electron with speed has been confirmed experimentally, the agreement with calculation being perfect if the electron undergoes the FitzGerald contraction by its motion. This has been held to indicate that the electron cannot have any inertia other than that due to the electromagnetic field carried with it. But the conclusion (though probable enough) is not a fair inference; because these results, obtained by special calculation for electrical inertia, are found to be predicted by the theory of relativity for any kind of inertia. This will be shown in Chapter. The factor giving the increase of mass with speed is the same as that which affects length and time. Thus if a rod moves at such a speed that its length is halved, its mass will be doubled. Its density will be increased four-fold, since it is both heavier and less in volume.

We have thought it necessary to include this brief summary of the electrical theory of matter and mass, because, although it is not required by the relativity theory, it is so universally accepted in physics that we can scarcely ignore it. Later on we shall reach in a more general way the identification of mass with energy and the variation of mass with speed; but, since the experimental measurement of inertia involves the study of a body in non-uniform motion, it is not possible to enter on a satisfactory discussion of mass until the more general theory of relativity for non-uniform motion has been developed.