Page:LewisRevision.djvu/12

Between these two limits it is obvious that

${\frac {1}{2}}mv^{2}<\mathrm {E} '<mv^{2}$.

The momentum and the kinetic energy of any mass moving with the velocity of light are, therefore,

$\mathrm {M} =m\mathrm {V}$, $\mathrm {E} '=m\mathrm {V} ^{2}$,

but these equations are identical with (5) and (9) which we obtained for the momentum and the energy of a beam of light.

Further Consequences of the Theory.

The view here proposed, which appears at first sight a reversion to the old corpuscular theory of light, must seem to many incompatible with the electromagnetic theory. If it were really so I should not have ventured to advance it, for the ideas announced by Maxwell constitute what may no longer be regarded as a theory, but rather a body of experimental fact. The new theory is offered, not in any sense to replace, but to supplement the accepted theories of light. I hope in another paper to show that it is entirely consistent with those theories. Such a proof may constitute a step towards one of the obvious goals of present day science, the complete mechanical explanation of electromagnetic phenomena, or, what is very nearly the same thing, an electromagnetic explanation of the phenomena of ordinary mechanics. In the meantime a few of the more salient conclusions of our theory may be cursorily examined.

In the first place it should be noticed that, while the theory is consistent with a modified corpuscular theory of light, it does not necessarily imply that light is corpuscular. The stream of mass issuing from a radiating body may be made up of discrete particles or it may be continuous. Whatever it may be that is emitted it is not matter in the ordinary sense, as is to be seen from the following considerations : —

According to equation (15) any body of finite mass increases in mass as it increases in velocity and would possess infinite mass if it could be given the velocity of light. Therefore that which in a beam of light has mass, momentum, and energy, and is travelling with the velocity of light, would have no energy, momentum, or mass if it were at rest, or indeed if it were moving with a velocity even by the smallest fraction less than that of light. After this extraordinary conclusion it would be at present idle to discuss whether the same substance or thing which carries the radiation from the emitting body continues to carry it through space, or, indeed, whether there is any substance or thing connected with the process.