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3.3.6 Mass and Energy

Philosophically, it would seem illogical that nature should produce two substances, mass and energy, with such directly related units. In physical reality, mass seems to be associated uniquely with particles, whereas energy is, in this new theory at least, universally distributed through out the universe. On these grounds, it would make sense to choose energy as the primary substance, and mass as an equivalent form which exists only in particles.

This would be a satisfactory approach were it not for the problem of converting mass of a particle into its energy content. Einstein's formula applies to a stationary particle, having mass, \(m_o\), and its energy content, \(E_o\), hence, \(E_o=m_o \times\ c_o^2\).

In this new theory presented here, expansion velocity of the energy continuum, \(c_o\), must be taken into account when calculating the energy content of a particle moving within the continuum with a velocity, \(v\). As already noted, velocity within the continuum is always perpendicular to expansion velocity, so that the combined velocity is given by \(c_v^2=c_o^2 +v^2\). On this basis, the energy content of a moving particle should be given by \(E_v = m_v c_v^2 =m_v c_o^2 + m_v v^2\). This implies that the kinetic energy due to velocity, v, is \(E_k = m_v c_v^2 - m_o c_o^2 \). The value of moving mass, \(m_v\) could be determined if the value of kinetic energy is known - and vice-versa. However, since neither is known precisely, it makes more sense to bypass mass altogether, to calculate kinetic energy directly, and use this to determine total energy content of a moving particle. This task is accomplished in the following section.

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