June 3, 2008
Here's a paradox about work-driven buildup of mass and  conservation of angular momentum.  Give it a try.
 In everyday mechanics, in order to redistribute mass we have to actually  move it from one place to another.  However, the equivalency of mass and energy  complicates that issue.  For example, we could convert the impact energy U (I  use U so E can be a field) of a falling mass m1 hitting the floor into mass m2:  m2 = m1gh/c^2.  Hence potential energy can of course be converted into mass, not  just actual energy.  Note that we could violate conservation of angular momentum  (sum of r cross p) if we could just shift mass effortlessly (no forces, like  "teleportation") even if the total did stay the same.  That's because in a frame  of ref. where the mass is moving, its linear momentum vector would be shifted  sideways to itself. (Thus changing the r cross p with no compensation.)
 I am aware of various sorts of compensation etc. in apparently paradoxical  situations, but I imagined a thought experiment that I can't solve to maintain  CoAM.  Have a line charge along "x."  Have also two square "solenoids" S1 and S2  with same sense of current and sides equal to Y.  All three lie in the same  plane, with one solenoid centered at coordinate y1 and the other at y2 = -y1.  (Being lazy at constructing ASCII diagrams has sharpened my  verbal descriptions.)  One one side of each solenoid , the current is being  "pushed" in the direction of field E, and on the other, the current is fighting  against E.  It helps the following if you imagine not a literal current of  electrons, but a mechanically driven belt of little charged bodies:  On the  side of each where E is favorable to the "current ", mass-energy builds up at a  rate dm/dt = IEY/c^2.  On the unfavorable side, mass-energy is lost at a rate  dm/dt = -IEY/c^2 (if abs. vals used for the variables.)  That already looks like  a problem per the previous discussion, but we usually consider such issues  solved by the AM etc. of the fields.  (Note Feynman's paradox of the charged  wheel, etc.)  Some say there's an "energy current" between the sides (see  Taylor/Wheeler,  Spacetime Physics etc.) , but how does that really  work?
 However, the real test (?) of there being a problem is whether it is  reversible.  Hence, let's move S1 and S2 respectively away from the line charge  at low velocity.  Now, once they're accelerated, we have for the rate of change  of angular momentum L:  dL/dt = rv dm/dt, using proper signs in vector notation.  If you check, you'll find that there's a net change of L as S1 and S2 move to a  distance from the line (same sign of build ups at opposite sides as seen by  observer looking at plane, times opposite r and v, gives same dL/dt for S1 and  S2.)  I can't find an influence on the wire from their motion that would  compensate the right amount.  Then, at a distance, you can switch the direction  of current in the solenoids and again no net effect.  Then, move S1 and S2  towards the line charge, and reversed dm/dt and reversed v makes the same dL/dt  as before.  Lather, rinse, repeat; I don't yet see how to foil it.
 Give solving it a try, you may even get help from offbeat angles like  stress corrections in the solenoids etc. 
    
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