2 Force and Mass

2.1 Galileos Principle (Newtons First Axiom)

Galileos principle, which forms the starting point of theoretical mechanics, states that in an inertial frame of reference all bodies not acted upon by any force move rectilinearly and homogeneously at constant velocity v . The main diculty arising here lies in the realization of an inertial frame, which is only possible by iteration: to a zeroth degree of approximation an inertial frame is a system of Cartesian coordinates, which is rigidly rotating with the surface of the earth, to which its axes are attached; to the next approximation they are attached to the center of the earth; in the following approximation they are attached to the center of the sun, to a third approximation to the center of our galaxy, and so on. According to Mach an inertial frame can thus only be dened by the overall distribution of the stars. The nal diculties were only resolved later by Einstein, who proposed that inertial frames can only be dened locally , since gravitation and acceleration are equivalent quantities (see Chap. 14). Galileos principle is essentially equivalent to Newtons First Axiom (or Newtons First Law of Motion).

2.2 Newtons Second Axiom: Inertia; Newtons Equation of Motion

This axiom constitutes an essential widening and accentuation of Galileos principle through the introduction of the notions of force, F , and inertial mass, mt m. (This is the inertial aspect of the central notion of mass, m.) Newtons second law was originally stated in terms of momentum. The rate of change of momentum of a body is proportional to the force acting on the body and is in the same direction. where the momentum of a body of inertial mass mt is quantied by the vector p := mt v .1 Thus F =
1

dp . dt

(2.1)

Here we consider only bodies with innitesimal volume: so-called point masses.

2 Force and Mass

The notion of mass also has a gravitational aspect, ms (see below), where mt = ms ( m). However, primarily a body possesses inertial mass mt , which is a quantitative measure of its inertia or resistance to being moved2 . (Note: In the above form, (2.1) also holds in the special theory of relativity, see Sect. 15 below, according to which the momentum is given by p= m0 v 1
v2 c2

m0 is the rest mass, which only agrees with mt in the Newtonian approximation v 2 c2 , where c is the velocity of light in vacuo.) Equation (2.1) can be considered to be essentially a denition of force involving (inertial) mass and velocity, or equivalently a denition of mass in terms of force (see below). As already mentioned, a body with (inertial) mass also produces a gravitational force proportional to its gravitational mass ms . Astonishingly, in the conventional units, i.e., apart from a universal constant, one has the well-known identity ms mt , which becomes still more astonishing, if one simply changes the name and thinks of ms as a gravitational charge instead of gravitational mass. This remarkable identity, to which we shall return later, provided Einstein with strong motivation for developing his general theory of relativity.

2.3 Basic and Derived Quantities; Gravitational Force

The basic quantities underlying all physical measurements of motion are time : dened from multiples of the period of a so-called atomic clock , and distance : measurements of which are nowadays performed using radar signals.

The conventional units of time (e.g., second, hour, year) and length (e.g., kilometre, mile, etc.) are arbitrary. They have been introduced historically, often from astronomical observations, and can easily be transformed from one to the other. In this context, the so-called archive metre (in French: m` etre des archives ) was adopted historically as the universal prototype for a standard length or distance: 1 metre (1 m). Similarly, the archive kilogram or international prototype kilogram in Paris is the universal standard for the unit of mass : 1 kilogram (1 kg).
2

in German: inertial mass = tr age Masse as opposed to gravitational mass = schwere Masse ms . The fact that in principle one should distinguish between the two quantities was already noted by the German physicist H. Hertz in 1884; see [4].

2.3 Basic and Derived Quantities; Gravitational Force

However, the problem as to whether the archive kilogram should be used as a denition of (inertial) mass or a denition of force produced a dilemma. In the nineteen-fties the kilopond (kp) (or kilogram-force (kgf)) was adopted as a standard quantity in many countries. This quantity is dened as the gravitational force acting on a 1 kg mass in standard earth gravity (in Paris where the archive kilogram was deposited). At that time the quantity force was considered to be a basic quantity, while mass was (only) a derived one. More recently, even the above countries have reverted to using length, time, and (inertial) mass as base quantities and force as a derived quantity. In this book we shall generally use the international system (SI) of units, which has 7 dimensionally independent base units: metre, kilogram, second, ampere, kelvin, mole and candela. All other physical units can be derived from these base units. What can be learnt from this? Whether a quantity is basic or (only) derived , is a matter of convention. Even the number of base quantities is not xed; e.g., some physicists use the cgs system, which has three base quantities, length in centimetres (cm), time in seconds (s) and (inertial) mass in grams (g), or multiples thereof; or the mksA system, which has four base quantities, corresponding to the standard units: metre (m), kilogram (kg), second (s) and ampere (A) (which only comes into play in electrodynamics). Finally one may adopt a system with only one basic quantity, as preferred by high-energy physicists, who like to express everything in terms of a fundamental unit of energy, the electron-volt eV: e.g., lengths are expressed in units of c/(eV), where is Plancks constant divided by 2 , which is a universal quantity with the physical dimension action = energy time, while c is the velocity of light in vacuo ; masses are expressed in units of eV/c2 , which is the rest mass corresponding to the energy 1 eV. (Powers of and c are usually replaced by unity3 ). As a consequence, writing Newtons equation of motion in the form ma=F
2

(2.2)

r (relating acceleration a := d dt2 and force F ), it follows that one can equally well say that in this equation the force (e.g., calibrated by a certain spring) is the basic quantity, as opposed to the dierent viewpoint that the mass is basic with the force being a derived quantity , which is derived by the above equation. (This arbitariness or dichotomy of viewpoints reminds us of the question: Which came rst, the chicken or the egg?!). In a more modern didactical framework based on current densities one could, for example, write p the left-hand side of (2.2) as the time-derivative of the momentum, d dt F , thereby using the force as a secondary quantity. However, as already
3

One should avoid using the semantically dierent formulation set to 1 for the quantities with non-vanishing physical dimension such as c(= 2.998 108 m/s), etc.

2 Force and Mass

mentioned, a dierent viewpoint is also possible, and it is better to keep an open mind on these matters than to x our ideas unnecessarily. Finally, the problem of planetary motion dating back to the time of Newton where one must in principle distinguish between the inertial mass mt entering (2.2) and a gravitational mass ms , which is numerically identical to mt (apart from a universal constant, which is usually replaced by unity), is far from being trivial; ms is dened by the gravitational law: F (r ) = M s ms r R , |r R|2 |r R|

where r and ms refer to the planet, and R and Ms to the central star (sun), while is the gravitational constant. Here the [gravitational] masses play the role of gravitational charges, similar to the case of Coulombs law in electromagnetism. In particular, as in Coulombs law, the proportionality of the gravitational force to Ms and ms can be considered as representing an active and a passive aspect of gravitation.4 The fact that inertial and gravitational mass are indeed equal was rst proved experimentally by E otv os (Budapest, 1911 [6]); thus we may write ms = mt m.

2.4 Newtons Third Axiom (Action and Reaction . . . )

Newtons third axiom states that action and reaction are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction.5 This implies inter alia that the active and passive gravitational masses are equal (see the end of the preceding section), i.e., on the one hand, a body with an (active) gravitational charge Ms generates a gravitational eld G(r ) = Ms rR , |r R|2 |r R|

in which, on the other hand, a dierent body with a (passive) gravitational charge ms is acted upon by a force, i.e., F = ms G(r). The relations are analogous to the electrical case (Coulombs law). The equality of active and passive gravitational charge is again not self-evident, but in the considered context it is implied that no torque arises (see also Sect. 5.2). Newton also recognized the general importance of his third axiom, e.g., with regard to the application of tensile stresses or compression forces between two bodies. Three additional consequences of this and the preceding sections will now be discussed.
4

If one only considers the relative motion, active and passive aspects cannot be distinguished. In some countries this is described by the abbreviation in Latin actio=reactio.

2.4 Newtons Third Axiom (Action and Reaction . . . )

a) As a consequence of equating the inertial and gravitational masses in Newtons equation F (r ) = ms G(r) it follows that all bodies fall equally fast (if only gravitational forces are considered), i.e.: a(t) = G(r (t)). This corresponds to Galileos experiment6 , or rather thought experiment, of dropping dierent masses simultanously from the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. b) The principle of superposition applies with respect to gravitational forces: G(r ) =
k

(Ms )k r Rk . 2 |r Rk | |r Rk |

Here (Ms )k := k Vk is the mass of a small volume element Vk , and k is the mass density. An analogous superposition principle also applies for electrostatic forces, but, e.g., not to nuclear forces. For the principle of superposition to apply, the equations of motion must be linear. c) Gravitational (and Coulomb) forces act in the direction of the line joining the point masses i and k . This implies a dierent emphasis on the meaning of Newtons third axiom. In its weak form, the postulate means that F i,k = F k,i ; in an intensied or strong form it means that F i,k = (r i r k ) f (ri,k ), where f (rik ) is a scalar function of the distance ri,k := |ri r k |. As we will see below, the above intensication yields a sucient condition that Newtons third axiom not only implies F i,k = F k,i , but also Di,k = Dk,i , where D i,k is the torque acting on a particle at r i by a particle at rk .

In essence, the early statement of Galileo already contained the basis not only of otv os experiment, [6] (see also [4]), the later equation ms = mt , but also of the E and of Einsteins equivalence principle (see below).