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TheJoninator
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And why does it increase as you travel faster and faster?
silmaril89 said:Energy equals mass, E = mc^2. As a particle gains more and more energy, it's mass increases, because mass is energy.
TheJoninator said:And why does it increase as you travel faster and faster?
edguy99 said:I am still not sure about the equations if the mass is falling (speeding up) in a gravity field. I am pretty sure it speeds up and losses mass, but I don't know the equations to try and calculate that one (but I would like to if someone has a link...).
edguy99 said:I am not sure relativistic mass is the best word here, invariant mass and/or inertial mass are often used and I am not sure if the definition is the same for all people.
The increase in mass is not because you are traveling faster and faster, it is because you are absorbing energy to travel faster. Ie. if you shot a laser at the front of a fast moving object, it would slow down and gain mass. If you shot a laser from behind a moving object, it would speed up and gain mass.
If you were a moving object and shot a laser out your back to speed yourself up, you would loss energy/mass and speed up. If you shot the laser out the front of yourself to slow down, you would loss energy/mass and slow down.
I am still not sure about the equations if the mass is falling (speeding up) in a gravity field. I am pretty sure it speeds up and losses mass, but I don't know the equations to try and calculate that one (but I would like to if someone has a link...).
TheJoninator said:Can you explain the part about the laser being shot at the front of a fast moving object? I don't really understand what you're saying. Is it the laser that's slowing down or the truck? I'm guessing it's the truck though since light doesn't have mass.
The part about shooting a laser out your back etc, is that because the energy for the laser is in the form of mass so when you use it to power the laser, the mass turns into energy to power the laser?
TheJoninator said:Thanks for all of your help everyone. One last question, if you was to tell someone what the definition of relativistic mass is, then what would you say?
TheJoninator said:Thanks for all of your help everyone. One last question, if you was to tell someone what the definition of relativistic mass is, then what would you say?
Relativistic mass is a concept in physics that describes the increase in mass of an object as it approaches the speed of light. It is also known as "relativistic mass increase" or "kinetic mass".
Rest mass is the mass of an object when it is at rest, while relativistic mass takes into account the increase in mass due to the object's velocity. As the velocity of an object approaches the speed of light, its relativistic mass increases significantly, while its rest mass remains constant.
The equation for relativistic mass is m = m0/√(1-v^2/c^2), where m0 is the rest mass, v is the velocity of the object, and c is the speed of light.
As particles approach the speed of light, their relativistic mass increases, which in turn requires more energy to accelerate them further. This leads to the phenomenon of time dilation and length contraction, where the passage of time and the length of objects appear to change for an observer moving at a different velocity.
Relativistic mass is a commonly used concept in the field of physics, particularly in the study of high-speed particles, such as those in particle accelerators. However, it is often replaced by the concept of "rest mass" in modern physics, as it can lead to confusion and is not always necessary for calculations.