Ok…so I’m having a discussion tonight about relativity. And the topic came up discussing the equation:
M=M0 /(the square root of) (1-(v2 xc2)
Or to put it in english since I can’t figure out how to actually put the equation in here, its:
Mass=the mass at rest divided by the square root of 1 minus the product of the velocity squared times the speed of light constant squared.
Ok. Basically the disagreement is that one of us thinks that the velocity V squared is the representation of Energy, since Energy equals Mass time the speed of light constant squared. The other of us basically thinks that the velocity is NOT representing energy in the equation, that this is simply another way to express mass, and velocity is simply velocity. I being the one saying that velocity does NOT represent energy in the equation, though conceeding that velocity and energy are related, or are a function of each other. So, my questions are:
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Who is right (or are we both wrong as I suspect)? IS the v in the equation representing energy? Can mass be defined or specified without talking about energy?
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Can someone please tell me how both velocity, mass and energy are represented in some kind of definition that makes sense to a layman? I THINK that velocity is distance over time, mass is the weight over the gravitational constant (I think) and energy is related to work and power, but its been over a decade since I was in college.
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The root of the discussion was one of particles in a specific experiment. Basically, the real question that drove all this was: If a small particle (say an electron) is passing through some material going basically at the speed of light and it encounters a nucleus or other particle, why does the nucleus deflect the moving particle? The way the other person was looking at it, basically, was that the mass increases as the particle approaches the speed of light (becoming very large, relative to the initial mass of the particle)…so how does it get deflected? Is it by the charge of the particle only, or is it the potential energy of the stationary particle acting in basic Newtonian ways (i.e. action reaction, an object in motion stays in motion, unless acted upon by another object/force, etc etc)?
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Can someone explain how mass increases as a particle approaches the speed of light? I always just thought it was the energy that increased as a particle or object approached the speed of light, but appearently, looking at the equation I listed and the E=MC2 equation, mass ALSO increases. Can any physics types kind of give a good laymans explaination of this?
Really appreciate any help you can give to clear this up. I’m SO rusty at this crap that I can barely get my brain around it anymore.
-XT