I am also hoping that an actual physicist will weigh in, but your first sentance is almost exactly like my thought but with kind of the opposite conclusion. When we say a bag of sugar weighs 10 newtons on earth and 1.6 newtons on the moon what are we really saying? Does it make more sense to talk about light as zero or non-zero in that context?
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The Very-Many-Questions-Not-Worth-Their-Own-Thread Thread XLIII
- Thread starter Chukchi Husky
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Weight is not something I would use as a term to describe photons.
Weight is a problematic concept, so physicists tend to not use it very much beyond an introductory classical mechanics course.
First, it is not an intrinsic property of an object, but depends on the interaction with a gravitational field. This will change depending on where you are, so it is not a defined quantity unless you are describing a very specific situation.
Second, even in non-relativistic mechanics, it depends on your reference system. If you are in plane on a parabolic trajectory, what is your weight? With respect to the earth you are still accelerating, but with respect to the plane you are weightless. You can get around this, by transforming to the reference system where the object is at rest and measuring the force that will keep you at rest in that system. In this case that would be the plane and you have a weight of (near-)zero, although you are still in the gravity field of the earth. As you will feel weightless in such a situation, this works out.
Enter General Relativity. Gravity is not really described as a force field anymore, but as a distortion of space-time and objects follow the world lines in curved space-time. This means that you don't really need the concept of weight anymore: It is just acceleration in a specific reference system. But for an object with mass you can still transform to the system where the object is at rest and measure the force to keep it at rest. Classic mechanics does work in non-relativistic situations after all. But this does not work for photons: They always travel at the speed of light, so you cannot transform to a reference system where the photon is at rest (you will have a mathematical singularity if you try).
Or if you look at it slightly differently: Weight is a concept from classical mechanics and it makes no sense to use it for photon-gravity interactions which cannot be described by classical mechanics.
From a philosophical point of view, I understand the argument that photons are affected by gravity so they must have weight. So I would not say that "photons have weight" is incorrect. But since there is no physical quantity to describe this, I would not say it is correct either.
Gori the Grey
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All these years of dieting!
... will still have an effect on your mass.
Comrade Ceasefire
Simmer slowly
The cure for melancholia they say
Is to write a limerick a day
Discard the subliminal
Now that Trump is a criminal
and blue skies will be yours, Mr Grey.
Of the ways that Yanks rank their men
The way you say 'erb's beyond ken
I don't care about guns
or what's twixt you buns
But why you sound like some French men.
Gori the Grey
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Do Aussies actually pronounce the h in herbs?
Comrade Ceasefire
Simmer slowly
Of course! We are not faux French.
Gori the Grey
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Anyway, for a while I'll probably avail myself of your remedy for melancholia. When Trump absurdity heats up, it tends to bring out the limericker in me.
As you've probably discerned, I'm not in fact a terribly melancholic fellow. Maybe I should have backed off to something like "wistful" or the like.
One of my favorite jokes turns on unpronounced letters. It's better if spoken, not written.
A guy is sitting next to another guy on the plane and asks him were he's going
He says "Guadala-jar-a" (pronouncing the j as j)
The guy says "Oh, Spanish speakers pronounce js as aitches; it's Guadala-har-a"
He says back "Oh, good to know"
Then the first guy asks, "How long will your visit be?"
"Oh most of Hune and Huly"
As you've probably discerned, I'm not in fact a terribly melancholic fellow. Maybe I should have backed off to something like "wistful" or the like.
One of my favorite jokes turns on unpronounced letters. It's better if spoken, not written.
A guy is sitting next to another guy on the plane and asks him were he's going
He says "Guadala-jar-a" (pronouncing the j as j)
The guy says "Oh, Spanish speakers pronounce js as aitches; it's Guadala-har-a"
He says back "Oh, good to know"
Then the first guy asks, "How long will your visit be?"
"Oh most of Hune and Huly"
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Do Houthis pronounce the second h in Houthi? Rish! does not, he says Houti. It is a family name, right, so it should be said the local way?
Isn't it faux Italian?
Very good, though still not of the level of The perfidious lemma of Dehn. Because it lacks a massive surname ^^
Gori the Grey
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How about in the specific case of herb de provence?
Comrade Ceasefire
Simmer slowly
1. Australians have little occasion to use the phrase herb de provence.
2. "Into the face of the young man who sat on the terrace of the Hotel Magnifique at Cannes there had crept a look of furtive shame, the shifty hangdog look which announces that a South Australian is about to speak French."
With apologies to P.G. Wodehouse, The Luck of the Bodkins.
We would pronounce it the French way, i.e. no 'h' because it is a French phrase.
3. There are many French geographic names in South Australia due to the explorers Nicolas Baudin (1754-1803) and Jean-François de Galaup La Pérouse (1741-1788).
Cape Rabelais, Fleurieu Peninsula, Lacepede Bay, Guichen Bay, and Vivonne Bay among many others.
4. There is a long running distinction in Australia concerning those who pronounce the letter 'H' as aitch, and those who pronounce it haitch.
It is a marker of class, Catholics vs Protestants, Irish vs English, private vs public school education, and in short, pretentiousness. (What we call private schools here are known as public schools in England; public schools are those funded exclusively by the State.) My first language was Lithuanian which has no 'h'.
5. Of course there are those who switch (sometimes called "affective downgrading") to identify as, for example, both elite and egalitarian.
6. The Irish/English, Catholic/Protestant distinctions were much more prominent and politically charged in New South Wales and other states where there were English penal colonies. South Australia is the only state that never received convicts from England. It was also a haven for people fleeing religious persecution in Europe, particularly Germany, which is why there are many towns with German names.
7. South Australians have the most English-like accents in Australia. We pronounce many words differently, e.g. Frahnce, not France (with a short 'a'); castle as kahsell, not kassell (with a short 'a').
8. Most Australians would say a hotel, not an hotel; a history, not an history. And if anyone does, the rest of us give each other a side-eye.
Gori the Grey
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Man, that question elicited one 'ell of a response!
Oh, the Outback will sure be superb, 'n
I'll go sample some Tiger Snake bourbon.
But when it's the date
To go visit my mate,
Should I say that his domicile's "hurban"?
Oh, the Outback will sure be superb, 'n
I'll go sample some Tiger Snake bourbon.
But when it's the date
To go visit my mate,
Should I say that his domicile's "hurban"?
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Comrade Ceasefire
Simmer slowly
'T'
'ope that 'elps.
Comrade Ceasefire
Simmer slowly
We're all rank amateurs compared to Tom Lehrer when it comes to rhymes...
"Just sing out a te deum
When you see that i.c.b.m.,"
and
"Eating an orange
While making love
Makes for bizarre enj-
oyment thereof."
Gori the Grey
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Here's my own favorite poem on nuclear annihilation. It's called "Pragmatist" by Edmund Conti:
Apocalypse soon
Coming our way.
Ground zero at noon.
Halve a nice day.
At Trinity
A bomb exploded in my heart
Thinking of you
A bomb exploded in my heart
Thinking of you
Is it obviously "unreasonable to demand authors boycott Instagram or stop selling books on Amazon"?
This is a quote from Baillie Gifford justifying their support of the Israeli military and settlements in the occupied territories. While it is a facile comparison, I do not even slightly accept the statement as long as we mean demand in the same way I demand an investment firm alter their practices. I would say that anyone who is selling IP (or anything really) is playing an very dangerous game to build either Bezos' or Zuckerberg's megacorp into their business model. I also think we should be all we can to avoid them for ethical reasons, and I do so.
This is a quote from Baillie Gifford justifying their support of the Israeli military and settlements in the occupied territories. While it is a facile comparison, I do not even slightly accept the statement as long as we mean demand in the same way I demand an investment firm alter their practices. I would say that anyone who is selling IP (or anything really) is playing an very dangerous game to build either Bezos' or Zuckerberg's megacorp into their business model. I also think we should be all we can to avoid them for ethical reasons, and I do so.
Synobun
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Yes, it is. Amazon had control of over 60% of the book market in 2014, and they've only become more dominant since. Boycotting Amazon as an author is intentionally kneecapping yourself when you are already in a business with effectively no profit. Authors should go "wide" and not be exclusive with Amazon, but outright boycotting the platform is colossal sabotage for a fledgling author and likely most full-time authors as well, depending on their niche.
If Baillie Gifford could make that argument, that if they full divested from fossil fuels and the Israeli military they would go bust because everyone would pull their money would that make the calls for divestment unreasonable? Fossil fuels have control over 80% of the energy market.
It is quite possible that distributing your book on Amazon makes it legal for them to machine learn it. If the judges who make most of the rules decide that the illegal thing in Generative AI is the making of the copy to learn it, and you have already given amazon the right to make copies, it may be that which dooms world literature. Does that make such a "demand" reasonable?
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