Yes, of course a massless particle is affected by gravity. No matter whether it has mass or not, it has (is) energy, and energy is equivalent to mass by the formula E=mC2. For a well-known example, starlight (made of massless photons) is bent as it passes through the gravitational fields of other celestial bodies.
As for the rest of the question, gravity is a force. But if you drop an object into a gravitational field, the object begins to fall, and as it falls it gains energy. It "borrows" this energy from the gravitational field. When the object finally crashes on the surface (of the body which exerts the gravitational field) it releases this gained energy as heat and light and sound. CRASH!
The terms "energy" and "force" are almost synonymous. Gravity is a force, but it can be converted into energy. (Same with the other three forces.)
2006-07-21 02:42:16
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answer #1
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answered by stanheidrich 2
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As stated in some answers before, something can have no mass and still be affected by gravity. The best example of this is the photon. Gravity can effect photons in many ways, not just the one named so far which is the bending of light. Gravity can also change the frequency of light. I'm not talking about the red-shift or anything like that. An experiment called the Pound-Rebka experiment showed that if you send photons towards the center of the earth and you have a detector like 1km into the earth, you will record a change in frequency (if the photons go towards the earth, you will get a blue-shift whereas up towards the sky, you will get red-shift). This is predicted by general relativity and is an important effect of gravity on massless particles that has not been mentioned before.
2006-07-21 02:30:32
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answer #2
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answered by jerryjon02 2
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Yes it would. Gravity acts like this:
Imagine a cloth streched out being held at the four corners. Say it was flat. Now the surface of the cloth is your space.
Place a marble on that cloth (space) and see it distort the space. This is what gravity does to space. so that anything travelling on this surface will seem to curve once it nears the marble.
If the marble is heavy enough it will create a pit out of which objects travelling on the surface can't hope to escape: a black hole!
So light travelling on this surface (space) would be bent.
2. Gravity is not converted into mass or vice versa.
2006-07-20 22:15:51
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answer #3
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answered by blind_chameleon 5
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No, if it has no mass it would not be affected by gravity. And what do you mean ASSUMING mass can be converted into energy?
2006-07-20 22:03:05
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answer #4
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answered by Bethany 7
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mass is the measure of matter in an object. There is no way it can be converted to energy. Weight = massx acceleration due to gravity.
If mass = 0 , then weight is equal to 0
(any no. multiplied by 0=0)
2006-07-20 23:47:47
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answer #5
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answered by sherrylboodramhot 2
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You had to come up with a difficult one, didn't you. Light is not supposed to have mass, it is, however, attracted by black holes (hence the name) because of the intense gravitational attraction of the black hole.
All mass, at least all that we know of, has a gravitational attraction. It isn't really an energy though, otherwise you could say it was constantly creating energy. It is considered a force.
May the force be with you!
2006-07-20 22:08:16
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answer #6
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answered by Somewhere in Iraq 2
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Yes, even massless particles such as photons are affected by gravitational forces. This is because, under Relativity theory, gravity is the warping of spacetime around a mass, thus affecting the direction of travel of anything existing within that spacetime, even if massless.
2006-07-20 22:36:30
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answer #7
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answered by stellarfirefly 3
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if u talking about the object.. this means it certainly has mass.. and if not.. u r talking about nothingness.. though if there is no mass.. there is no gravity..as ...W=mg... though mass and gravity are not related with each other.. so gravity has nothing to do with mass.. however weight depends on both mass and gravity... if one doesnt exist..weight wont be there.. body wont be there...
gravity is enery produced by the core of the earth to attract us so that we stay on the surface .. otherwise.. we would be flying...
2006-07-20 23:51:56
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answer #8
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answered by BoB-SeriouS 2
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Yes, because gravity warps the space that the object travels through.
Light is bent by gravity, yet has no mass.
See the link below about the 1919 Eclipse which proved this.
2006-07-20 22:03:37
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answer #9
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answered by Sean 5
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gravity works with the very little energy coming off the matter. cuz matter is basicly energy. i think its lyke for every 600 kgms of matter u have 1 gm of force. so if you have an object containg no matter at all, its not effected by gravity. this is jus hypothetic cuz u dunt have an object withour matter.
2006-07-21 08:26:19
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answer #10
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answered by Anonymous
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