Does Mass Exist?

[NFUN]

Discuss.

[sevenperforce]

I just nudged a chair.

The chair did not accelerate to the speed of light. 

Therefore, the chair has mass.

Therefore, mass exists.

QED.

[Mitchz95]

Why ... why wouldn't it?

[insert_name]

I get accelerated at 9.8 ms^2

therefore the earth has mass

therefore mass exists QED

[rtxoff]

Yesterday i had a look on your mom, jeez, mass exists.

 

[LN400]

Just to clarify. Mass extinction. That has nothing to do with mass. Just thought I'd make that clear. Mass is still around.

[pxi]

If it doesn't, something is doing a damn fine job of making it seem like it does.

[NFUN]

There was an off-topic in another thread about this. I made this for them to have someplace better to debate.

[Camacha]

3 hours ago, NFUN said:

Discuss.

A discussion always starts with facts, arguments and a point of view. You tell people what you think, and if you do it right, you will tell what others think and why they might be wrong.

Dropping four words into a thread is not a discussion. An insult, maybe, though a very lazy one.

[NFUN]

I have no strong opinions on the matter*. I just created this thread so that off-topic arguments in another don't end up getting the thread locked.

 

 

*this is a blatant lie of course.

Edited February 21, 2016 by NFUN

[Mitchz95]

I have absolutely no idea what this thread is supposed to be about.

[NFUN]

On Sunday, February 21, 2016 at 7:27 PM, Mitchz95 said:

I have absolutely no idea what this thread is supposed to be about.

Does mass exist? It's apparently up for discussion.

[sevenperforce]

1 hour ago, NFUN said:

I have no strong opinions on the matter*. I just created this thread so that off-topic arguments in another don't end up getting the thread locked.

 

 

*this is a blatant lie of course.

I have strong opinions on this matter. 

90 million billion joules per kilogram strong. 

[mikegarrison]

It used to, but it's been so long since I've been inside a church that I don't know if it still does.

[Mitchz95]

24 minutes ago, NFUN said:

Does mass exist? It's apparently up for discussion.

Since when? Who says it might not exist? What's the evidence?

You can't just leave a question like that and say "discuss" without giving us something to actually discuss.

[NFUN]

On Sunday, February 21, 2016 at 8:32 PM, Mitchz95 said:

Since when? Who says it might not exist? What's the evidence?

You can't just leave a question like that and say "discuss" without giving us something to actually discuss.

Go to the second or third page.

[Mitchz95]

Okay, but you still should've given some context in the OP.

And yes, I believe mass exists.

Edited February 21, 2016 by Mitchz95

[Camacha]

1 hour ago, NFUN said:

I have no strong opinions on the matter

No discussion then. Exit thread.

 

6 minutes ago, NFUN said:

Go to the second or third page.

It does not work like that. If you want people to do something, you should at least try to entice them. A simple gib monee or gib discusion is rather lazy and might even be considered a bit rude. Apparently you envision something, but want other people to do the work for you. If you do not have an opinion, which is hard to believe, at least do a bit of homework and state some relevant facts, tell why you feel they are relevant and suggest a couple of pros and cons, looking at the matter from different perspectives. A decent topic start should be self starting, i.e. people do not need to look elsewhere to get going or know what the discussion is about.

I am looking forward to the proper topic start you are bound to post

Edited February 21, 2016 by Camacha

[NFUN]

I wasn't involved in the debate in the other thread. Sooner or later it would get closed for being off-topic, and it was getting a bit in the way of the original thread which I liked, so I decided I'd provide an alternate outlet. If they don't use this one, I don't really care. I'm just putting in minimal effort to keep things relevant.

[Nothalogh]

I'd ask the pope

[Camacha]

8 minutes ago, NFUN said:

I wasn't involved in the debate in the other thread. Sooner or later it would get closed for being off-topic, and it was getting a bit in the way of the original thread which I liked, so I decided I'd provide an alternate outlet. If they don't use this one, I don't really care. I'm just putting in minimal effort to keep things relevant.

This thread is off-topic, for lack of an actual topic. The term minimal effort seems... euphemistic.

[GluttonyReaper]

I've mentioned this in another thread at some point, but basically the issue revolves around the concept of "existing". If we think of "existence" as an invention of humanity to describe what we perceive around us, then sure, mass exists. But if we view existence as an absolute thing, well, things get a bit more complicated. In this case, we have to say that what we perceive matches with this absolute reality for us to say that what we generally consider to exist to actually exist. And this is the problematic bit - how can we tell what this absolute reality is if we can't observe it with any kind of certainty? Arguably, the point of science (at least in the short-term) is not to find the right way to describe the universe, but instead to find a working way - think Newtonian physics being "wrong" in the face of general relativity, but still good enough to fly to the Moon on. Which, thinking about the issue of mass, basically means that mass as a concept certainly exists, but mass existing absolutely is - at present - seemingly impossible to prove - like any scientific construct, it may at some point be superseded by a more accurate concept.

So, uh, the short answer is I have no idea.

[sevenperforce]

Well, you can frame it this way.

Are there objects which possess the property of not accelerating to c when they are subjected to force?

Yes, there are.

We can call this property "mass" without further inquiry. This property can exist even if you cannot prove the existence of the objects themselves. That is, even if the enthusiastically annoying philosopher insists that the intrinsic existence of the objects is still up for debate, it is still possible to identify the properties of the objects. One such property is mass. Therefore, mass exists.

[Bill Phil]

Mass is a property of matter. Matter is defined as a physical substance with a volume and mass, therefore mass exists if matter exists.

[insert_name]

I belive this thread was made for @Darnok correct?