I spend a lot of time on this blog explaining a
physical spacetime model and the underlying metaphysics. In this series of
posts, each entry poses a physics question for the spacetime model, along with
the answer.
Physics Question #6. What is
mass? For an elementary fermion (lepton or quark), mass is the inverse of the
precision with which the location of a stationary particle can be known. This
makes sense, because mass is defined as a measure of inertia or resistance to
acceleration. Resistance to movement and having a known or fixed location are
really the same thing. For a composite particle such as a baryon, mass is
mostly binding energy (gluons), the masses of the elementary constituents
(quarks) contributing very little to the baryon mass. For a massive gauge
boson, mass is the inverse of the range of the force carried by the particle.
The masses of the elementary particles are said
to be determined by the Higgs field. See this post to learn all about the Higgs
and its relation to mass
