Mass is mass is mass.
Inertial mass determines how easily an object accelerates in response to a force. Then there’s active gravitational mass, which determines the strength of an object’s gravitational field. Rounding out the trio is passive gravitational mass, which dictates the force on an object in a given gravitational field.
“It is a big question in physics why these masses are all the same,” says theoretical physicist Claus Lämmerzahl of the University of Bremen in Germany. So scientists want to be sure they aren’t slightly different.
Previously, the MICROSCOPE experiment confirmed the equivalence of inertial mass and passive gravitational mass in tests aboard a satellite (SN: 9/14/22).
2023-07-13 11:20:02
Link from www.sciencenews.org