this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2024
488 points (99.8% liked)

science

14875 readers
69 users here now

A community to post scientific articles, news, and civil discussion.

rule #1: be kind

<--- rules currently under construction, see current pinned post.

2024-11-11

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] caden@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 2 months ago

The object doesn't absorb their mass, but rather their energy (which admittedly can be equated to a mass via a factor of c^2, but that's not actually what's happening). The change in momentum that results from a photon hitting you isn't caused by a change in m, it comes from a change in v. If mass were the quantity being transferred, solar sails wouldn't work to move anything; they would just sit there and get more massive as photons hit them.