Abstract

The fundamental, yet often unstated. premise upon which the Special Theory of Relativity rests is the idea that the photon has no mass. This is a purely metaphysical assumption that is not confirmed by any experiment. All measurements of mass, energy and photons show the photon to have an energy of E=MC² and a mass of M=Sqrt(E/C²). The apparent conflict between these two equations is resolved by simply ignoring the second and declaring that photons, unlike any other bodies, are "pure" energy and have no mass. This faulty logic then leads to the conclusions that photons are created from the destruction of mass and that the energy used to accelerate a body increases its mass. However, a more rigorous interpretation of photon dynamics shows that mass is a universal constant and is never converted into photons and is never increased by the acceleration of bodies.