Re: Mass was Re: Questions (Space)

On Mon, 10 Sep 2007 23:33:57 +0100, Jonathan L Cunningham wrote:

However, if you take something like an electron going at 99% of the
speed of light, and apply a force, you can still accelerate it; just
not as much as you can when it's stationary. If you fudge Newton's
original equation, you can change it to X = K(v)*Y, where X is no
longer proportional to Y with K a constant of proportionality,
instead we make K a function of velocity, i.e. say that the mass is
a function of velocity.

Quibble: it's much easier to redefine "acceleration" as "add kinetic
energy", or (for short) "add energy". Accelerating a particle that's
already at .99c does in fact add energy to it -- it's just that (from an
outside observer's point of view) the energy goes into additional mass
instead of additional speed.

Quibble': from the POV of the particle being accelerated, Newton is
still correct. It's only that the rest of the Universe starts looking a
little funny.

Regards,
Ric

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