Thread: Energy and Gravity?

Mass has gravity, as far as we know completely unhindered by anything and everything, each electron has a nonzero gravitational pull on every other electron in the universe


does Energy (light/radio waves etc) have a similar gravitational force?

Yes. AFAIK, light and energy do curve space as well. E=mc^2 and all that.

Energy and mass are interchangable, so if a particle has energy, it also has mass. Electromagnetic radiation is affected by gravity, which is why a black hole has an event horizon.

Originally Posted by Booms

Mass has gravity, as far as we know completely unhindered by anything and everything, each electron has a nonzero gravitational pull on every other electron in the universe


does Energy (light/radio waves etc) have a similar gravitational force?

Yes, but you need to be careful.

In GR gravity is the result of curvature of spacetime and that curvature is determined by the stress-energy tensor.

Elements of that tensor include density of mass/energy, momentum and pressure, This tensor is an invariant, and is independent of the observer, so it is a bit more complicated than just finding mass from and plugging it into the Newonian .

Not only does energy cause curvature, gravitational energy also causes curvature, and hence gravity gravitates.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stress-energy_tensor