An Experimental Contribution on the Origin of Mass

To date, apart from non-verifiable hypotheses, there is no theory available to unite electromagnetism, quantum theory and gravitation with each other. The experiment presented below shows a way out of this crisis of physics. In this experiment it will be proved, that mass has to be associated with the self-induction energy of moving charges. The proof was performed with a highly sensitive balance. The experimental setup is shown in figure 1:

The balance beam is made of glass and coated on the lower surface with two aluminum stripes of equal width and length. The coating procedure is performed in one coating charge, in order to avoid differences between the aluminum stripes and to provide identical conduction paths. The beam center is positioned on two equal steel balls contacting the aluminum layer that provide the current supply from the DC source (shown below). At each end of the balance beam a respective toroid is conductively connected to the aluminum stripes. The two toroids are identical with their sense of the helix being opposed to each other: The right-hand and the left-hand toroid correspond to a screw with right-hand thread and left-hand thread resp. A laser beam (red) was used as a light pointer, because a very small effect was anticipated. This laser beam is reflected by one of the aluminum layers in the center of the balance beam and indicates very sensitively the deflection of the balance beam.

To avoid conceivable magnetic interference, the balance was positioned with the Earth’s magnetic field parallel to the toroids.

After the current had been switched on, a remarkable deflection of the balance beam was observed, i.e. while the weight of the right-hand threaded toroid decreased, the weight of the left-hand threaded toroid increased.

Reversing the polarity provided the same deflection of the balance beam, i.e. again the weight of the right-hand threaded toroid decreased, the weight of its counterpart increased.

Removing and reversing the complete arrangement (balance beam and toroids) from left to right, i.e. the right-hand threaded toroid now was on the left side and its counterpart on the right side, after applying the current the deflection of the balance was found to have reversed too. This means, again the weight of the right-hand threaded toroid decreased and the weight of its counterpart on the other side increased - also independent from the current polarity.

Accordingly, the mass changes as a function of helicity have also been transferred to the other side resp.

For verification of the experiment the following measurement conditions are given:

Balance beam:

- Float glass, both sides blank, 500 mm x 20 mm x 2mm

- Aluminum coating: 2 stripes, width 8 mm each, thickness 2 µm

- Uncoated clearance: 4 mm

- Diameter of the steel support balls of the beam: 3.9 mm;

Toroids:

- Core material of each toroidal coil: foamed polystyrene, non-conducting

- Size of the foamed polystyrene rings:

* inner ring diameter: 95 mm, outer ring diameter 145 mm

* Diameter of the polystyrene body: 50 mm (145 - 95);

- Weight of a polystyrene toroid: 4.3 g;

- Number of wire turns on each toroid: 135;

- Diameter of the coil wire: 0.6 mm;

- Material of the coil wire: aluminum

- Total weight of the wire of one toroid: 85.6 g;

Laser:

- He-Ne laser at a wavelength of λ = 633 nm

- Optical path of the light pointer: 4.8 m;

Power:

- 400 mA DC;

Calibration:

- the scale of the balance was calibrated by means of 1‑mg weights;

Results:

- At a current of 400 mA, one side of the beam became lighter by at least 0.1 mg and the opposing side became heavier by at least 0.1 mg.

The presented experiment was inspired by: B. Heddisch, Betrachtungen zum Thema Atom »