Re: Does special relativity imply that mass increases with increasing temperature?

Hi Christopher,

no, at least not directly. You know that, if you heat up a substance, its atoms (or molecules) move faster, as in the case of gases described by the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution. (Not too important, but maybe you have heard this name before). Now you can argue that due to the faster motion you could observe an increase in mass of the particles, according to relativity theory. Probably that is right - but the velocities are not sufficient (at least I assume that, the velocities are of the order of 100 m/s compared to about 300 000 000 m/s for light) for a measurable increase of mass.

Bye,
Andreas