LAUSR

A rigid body accelerated through a frictionless fluid appears to gain mass. Swimmers, air bubbles, submarines and airships are slowed down by the associated 'added mass' force which is distinct from viscous drag and buoyancy. In particle physics, an otherwise massless electron, quark, W or Z boson, moving through the Higgs field acquires a mass. In this article, we introduce the fluid mechanical added mass effect through examples and use its analogy with the Higgs mechanism to intuitively explain how the carriers of the weak force ( W and Z bosons) get their masses while leaving the photon massless.