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Can anyone tell me what the dimension of the stress energy tensor is? Also, if it represents energy density, will calling it kinetic or potential energy be appropriate?

DanielSank
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nihal
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  • Hi Nihal, my answer to the question I've linked discusses the dimensions of the entries in the stress-energy tensor. Potential energy is not included in the stress-energy tensor. – John Rennie Jul 06 '15 at 07:06
  • @JohnRennie this is a weird case where OP asked a much more specific question than the supposed duplicate. There was some recent discussion in the chat room about this in which it was indicated by some that cases like this should not necessarily be closed as duplicates. – DanielSank Jul 06 '15 at 07:15
  • Please show us how you have tried to answer your question. Did you look up the definition of stress-energy and simply plug in each part to find the resulting dimensions? Did you try anything at all? – DanielSank Jul 06 '15 at 07:16
  • @JohnRennie all I meant was that "what are the dimensions of the stress-energy tensor" would be a reasonable question to leave open because the one you linked has such a vague title that I'd never think it were related. – DanielSank Jul 06 '15 at 07:25
  • @DanielSank: I take your point, but the title of this question is "Meaning of stress energy tensor in relativity" and the title of the duplicate is "Intuitive understanding of the elements in the stress-energy tensor", and these seem to be functionally very similar. If the title of this question was "What are the dimensions of the elements in the stress-energy tensor" I might agree with you. – John Rennie Jul 06 '15 at 07:28
  • @JohnRennie: "If the title of this question was "What are the dimensions of the elements in the stress-energy tensor..." dat edit button ;) – DanielSank Jul 06 '15 at 07:33
  • @DanielSank: Are you also going to edit out the second question (about potential energy) since it now does not match the title? – John Rennie Jul 06 '15 at 07:35
  • Let us continue this discussion in chat. – DanielSank Jul 06 '15 at 07:36
  • @DanielSank: Thanks. I'me new to relativity and did not understand how the stress energy tensor ended up in the derivation of the field equations using Hilbert Action. – nihal Jul 06 '15 at 12:41

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