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From: stern@bnl.UUCP (Eric Stern)
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: Re: Particle Mass
Message-ID: <328@bnl.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 23-Jan-84 14:29:39 EST
Article-I.D.: bnl.328
Posted: Mon Jan 23 14:29:39 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 27-Jan-84 08:21:02 EST
References: <15815@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Organization: SUNY StonyBrook
Lines: 23

>	An article in SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN for October, 1983, has 
>	re-awakened my interest in cosmology and the like and
>	raised a question to which I probably should know the
>	answer:
>	
>		How is it that the mass of a neutrino is expressed
>		in electron volts?
>	
>	All light appreciated.
>	
>	Brint


Simple.  The electon volt is a unit of energy, being the amount
of energy gained by a particle with the charge equal to that of
an electron dropping through a potential difference of 1 volt.
The mass of neutrino multiplied by c**2 is an energy( E=mc**2 )
and can be expressed in electon volts.  In high energy physics
it is common and convenient to use a system of units where c = 1.
Then mass and energy are equivalent and equal.

                                          Eric G. Stern
                                             Suny StonyBrook