A couple of questions on mass increase

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the concept of mass increase in the context of special relativity, particularly focusing on experimental data related to the Bertozzi experiment. Participants inquire about precise measurements of mass increase, the implications of relativistic mass, and the relationship between energy, speed, and gravitational force in high-energy physics.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Technical explanation
  • Mathematical reasoning

Main Points Raised

  • One participant requests more precise experimental data on mass increase, questioning the rounding of values and the exact mass increase at various energy levels.
  • Another participant argues against the use of "relativistic mass," stating that it is a redundant concept and can lead to misconceptions about gravitational force.
  • Some participants clarify that "mass increase" is only relevant when discussing relativistic mass, while invariant mass remains constant regardless of motion.
  • A participant seeks to reframe their question in terms of invariant mass and asks for specific values of speed and mass for an electron receiving various amounts of energy.
  • There is a request for clarification on the exact difference between experimental results and the predictions of special relativity, particularly in the energy range of 1 to 30 MeV.
  • Several participants assert that the agreement between experimental results and special relativity is strong, with no significant disagreement noted.
  • One participant expresses frustration over the lack of specific data and requests the highest recorded energy and corresponding speed for electrons.
  • Another participant mentions the Large Hadron Collider's capabilities and the historical context of electron acceleration in previous experiments.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally agree on the strong alignment of experimental results with special relativity, but there are competing views regarding the relevance and interpretation of relativistic mass. The discussion remains unresolved regarding the specific requests for updated data and the implications of mass increase.

Contextual Notes

Participants express uncertainty about the availability of more recent and precise data compared to the Bertozzi experiment. There are unresolved questions about the exact nature of mass increase and its implications for gravitational force.

alba
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I found these [experimental data](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tests_of_relativistic_energy_and_momentum#Bertozzi_experiment) on mass increase.
> Data of the Bertozzi experiment show close agreement with special
> relativity. Kinetic energy of five electron runs: 0.5, 1, 1.5, 4.5, 15
> MeV (or 1, 2, 3, 9, 30 in mc²). Speed: 0.752, 0.828, 0.922, 0.974, 1.0
> in c (or 0.867, 0.910, 0.960, 0.987, 1 in c²).

- Do you know of any link where I can find more precise experimental data (say accurate to five digits) for mass increase?
For example, in the above table, is 0.5 MeV a rounded figure for 0.511 MeV , the rest mass of an electron? supposing the latter, what is the exact mass increase, is it exacly one mass (+ the usual rest mass), so the total mass is 2.00000 $m_e$?
And, if we give energy equal to 30 m(e) speed is surely not 1, what is the exact value?
- At what speed/energy there is minimum agreement with the SR formula? according to the picture it is about 5-6 MeV, is this correct?

- Can you also specify if "increased mass" means that the body exerts an increased (and exactly proportional) gravitational force? Does it mean that an electron with 1 GeV Ke exerts a pull equal to a proton?
 
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You really should stop using "relativistic mass" as most physicists have abandoned the concept as redundant. You will still find it in popular science and older textbooks, but it really adds nothing to the discussion and tends to confuse more than it helps - one of the more common misconceptions being that the gravity of the object changes according to the relativistic mass (it does change, just not in accordance to relativistic mass).

Please see https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/what-is-relativistic-mass-and-why-it-is-not-used-much/
 
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I only mentioned mass increase, is that wrong? did I miss something in your link, does it answer my questions?
 
"Mass increase" only occurs if you use the concept of relativistic mass. An object's invariant mass (generally just called "mass" because we no longer use relativistic mass) is an invariant and the same regardless of the state of motion.
 
Orodruin said:
"Mass increase" only occurs if you use the concept of relativistic mass. An object's invariant mass (generally just called "mass" because we no longer use relativistic mass) is an invariant and the same regardless of the state of motion.
Could you re-frame my question in current appropriate terms, and reply to it? My main question is:

what happens if an electron gets 0.511 MeV of energy (or twice or 30 times as much), what is its speed and what is its mass (if it increases, doesn't it?) ,according to recent experiments, and how much they differ from the SR formula.

Thanks
 
You can easily compute the speed according to the relativistic relation between speed and total energy. All results are compatible with SR within experimental errors.
 
Orodruin said:
You can easily compute the speed according to the relativistic relation between speed and total energy. All results are compatible with SR within experimental errors.
I know results are compatible with theory, what I am asking is to know the exact difference between theory and experiment in the range between 1 an 20-30 M(e) and where the disagreement is greatest. Do you know or can you direct me to a link?
 
alba said:
where the disagreement is greatest
There is no disagreement. Did you not read what I just wrote?
 
Orodruin said:
There is no disagreement. Did you not read what I just wrote?
Is it possible to have some up-to-date figures or a chart like the one in the wiki article I quoted? can you give me at least one single figure, say,at 5 mc^2, please?
 
  • #10
I do not understand what you are after. The agreement with special relativity is exceptional and modern particle accelerators would not function if this was not the case (not older ones either btw - old fashioned TVs needed to take relativistic effects into account).
 
  • #11
Orodruin said:
I do not understand what you are after. The agreement with special relativity is exceptional and modern particle accelerators would not function if this was not the case (not older ones either btw - old fashioned TVs needed to take relativistic effects into account).
You keep talking as if I am denying the agreement.

It is so hard to understand I am just asking for a list of figures more recent and accurate than Bertozzi's. (the one I quoted)? What is so strange about it?

Can I ask for the most precise figure avalaible of the speed of an electron with Ke of 9*0.511 Mev? is it exactly 0.974 c? THAT is what I am after!
 
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  • #12
High-energy particle accelerators like the LHC are designed, and the experiments using them are analyzed, under the assumption that energy and momentum vary with speed in the way that relativity predicts. If the relativistic energy and momentum equations didn't work for proton energies up to 6.5 TeV at least, particle physicists would have noticed it by now.
 
  • #13
You may rest asured that the agreement is good to a large number of significant digits. I do not know where you would find recent data, because this agreement is so good that things we have built would simply not work if it was not.
 
  • #14
jtbell said:
High-energy particle accelerators like the LHC are designed, and the experiments using them are analyzed, under the assumption that energy and momentum vary with speed in the way that relativity predicts. If the relativistic energy and momentum equations didn't work for proton energies up to 6.5 TeV at least, particle physicists would have noticed it by now.
Can you tell me what is the greatest energy and highest speed ever reache in such facilitty? Is there a list of data of such experiments there?
 
  • #15
alba said:
Can you tell me what is the greatest energy and highest speed ever reache in such facilitty?

The Large Hadron Collider at CERN has been accelerating protons to 6.5 TeV (6.5 x 106 MeV) since last year. That is the current record.

alba said:
Can you also specify if "increased mass" means that the body exerts an increased (and exactly proportional) gravitational force?

We had a thread about this a few days ago in our relativity forum:

https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/velocity-of-an-object-and-its-gravitational-pull.861305/
 
  • #16
Orodruin said:
You may rest asured that the agreement is good to a large number of significant digits. I do not know where you would find recent data, because this agreement is so good that things we have built would simply not work if it was not.

Why do you keep reassuring me, sir? haven't I made myself clear yet?
The chart I cited shows that agreement does vary at different energies, is that Bertozzi wrong? Has that experiment been disproved? Can you provide more recent or accurate data? If you can't , just say so. You haven't tried to answer one single question in my posts
 
  • #17
jtbell said:
The Large Hadron Collider at CERN has been accelerating protons to 6.5 TeV (6.5 x 106 MeV) since last year. That is the current record.
/
Thanks, Do you have info regarding electrons, please? If you can't direct me to a link, please tell me the highest energy recorded and the exact speed corresponding to that, please

Thanks for your help
 
  • #19
alba said:
Why do you keep reassuring me, sir? haven't I made myself clear yet?
The chart I cited shows that agreement does vary at different energies, is that Bertozzi wrong? Has that experiment been disproved? Can you provide more recent or accurate data? If you can't , just say so. You haven't tried to answer one single question in my posts
No, you misinterpret the result. In actuality, the Bertozzi experiment shows good agreement with SR within experimental uncertainty (you cannot expect more than that) and rules out the Newtonian description. That should be your takeaway message.
 
  • #21
DrGreg said:
See What is the experimental basis of Special Relativity? -- Tests of Relativistic Kinematics and in particular the subsection "Electron Relativistic Mass Variations".
Thanks for your link, but I found no data there, just a list of references Icannot access (including bertozzi):

Electron Relativistic Mass Variations
In the early 20th century there was an alternative theory by Abraham that is now little known, because these experiments rejected it in favor of SR. A critical review of the experimental evidence concerning the Lorentz model compared to the Abraham model was given in: Farago and Jannossy, Il Nuovo Cim. Vol5, No 6, pg 1411 (1957).
W. Kaufmann, Nachr. K. Ges. Wiss. Goettingen 2, pg 143 (1901) W. Kaufmann, Nachr. K. Ges. Wiss. Goettingen 3, pg 291 (1902); W. Kaufmann “Die elektromagnetische Masse des Elektrons”, Phys. Zeitschr. 4, pg 54 (1902) W. Kaufmann, Nachr. K. Ges. Wiss. Goettingen 4, pg 90 (1903) W. Kaufmann, “Uber die Konstitution des Elektrons”, Ann. Physik 19 ,495 (1906) and Nachtrag 20, 639–640 (1906); W. Kaufmann, “Uber die Konstitution des Elektrons”, Sitzungsberichte der preussichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1905, Part 2. W. Kaufmann, “Uber die Konstitution des Elektrons” Ann. Physik 19 ,495 (1906); W. Kaufmann, “Uber die Konstitution des Elektrons”, Sitzungsberichte der preussichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1915, Part A.H. Bucherer, Phyz. Zeitschr. 9 (1908), pg 755; Ber. d. deutschen Phys. Ges. 6 (1908), pg 688. A. Bucherer, “Die experimentelle Bestatigung des Relativitatsprinzips”, Annalen der Physik, 28, 1909E. Hupka, Ann. Phys. 31 (1910), pg 169 Cl. Schaefer and G. Neumann, Phys. Zeitschr. 14 (1913), pg 1117. G. Neumann, “Die träge Masse schnell bewegter Elektronen”, Ann. Phys. 45, pg 529 (1914) Ch.E. Guye and Ch. Lavanchy, Comptes rendus 161 (1915), pg 52Zahn and Spees, Phys. Rev. 53 (1938), pg 511Rogers et al., Physical Review 57 (1940), pg 37 Measurement of m/e and v for three beta-particles (electrons) from Radium. Supports the Lorentz model over the Abraham model by > 10 σ
  • W. Bertozzi, Am. J. Phys. 32, 551 (1964).
    Measurements of speed vs. energy for 0.5–15 MeV electrons.
 
  • #22
Are you looking for something like a plot of v as a function of E with error bars?
 
  • #23
alba said:
Can I ask for the most precise figure avalaible of the speed of an electron with Ke of 9*0.511 Mev? is it exactly 0.974 c? THAT is what I am after!

No. It is much closer to 0.995 c.

You cannot have an exact value. There is always an uncertainty associated with every measurement. The rest energy of an electron is not exactly 0.511 MeV.

But, ignoring that for now, let's answer a different question that is as close to the one you're asking as I can come up with, and that has an exact answer. What is the speed of an electron whose kinetic energy is 9 times its rest energy? That electron would have a total energy that is 10 times its rest energy, because total energy equals kinetic energy plus rest energy, so ##\gamma## equals 10.

(Using the antiquated notion of relativistic mass, you would say that such an electron is 10 times heavier than when at rest, but instead it is a more modern usage to say that the total energy is 10 times the rest energy, where rest energy is equivalent to mass. And by mass I mean the ordinary mass, what you might call the rest mass to distinguish it from the relativistic mass.)

Anyway, since ##\gamma=(1-\frac{v^2}{c^2})^{-1/2}## the speed ##v## would be exactly ##\sqrt{0.99}c##, or about 0.995##c##.

Modern particle accelerators achieve such high particle energies that it doesn't even make sense to look at the speed, because it's so close to ##c##. Or equivalently, the kinetic energy is such a large fraction of the total energy that the rest energy is negligible. The distinctions made in the references you cited have all been been put to bed by modern experiments that impart energies that are orders of magnitude greater.
 
  • #24
Dale said:
Are you looking for something like a plot of v as a function of E with error bars?
Yes, that is exactly what I am looking for
,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:BertozziExp.svg
something like the old one from 1964 I quoted, (bartozzi) with more precise and up to date figures. Surely those data can't be accurate since they were taken on such a short distance. I remarked above that such plot clearly indicate different agreements at different energies

Recent experiments am modern colliders, moreover, test energies much greater than 15 MeV, right?
See my next post, please
 
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  • #25
Mister T said:
No. It is much closer to 0.995 c.
You cannot have an exact value. .
I am not asking for an exact value, but for an appproximation of 5 digits and surely an experiment at LHC or the like produces such approximation.

- The predicted value for an increase of 9 rest masses is v = 0.994 987 437 (2) with the accuracy of 9 digits or, if we take all 10 digits, we get the value od 10.000 000 09 masses)
- At LHC or at any other sinchrotron, you know the exact energy provided, the magnetic field and the radius r of the collider

I suppose the can get a result with a five-digit accuracy, am I wrong?
 
  • #26
alba said:
I remarked above that such plot clearly indicate different agreements at different energies
And as I have indicated above, this is a misconception and expected only from measurement errors.

Perhaps it would be clearer why you keep beating a dead horse if you told us what you want this data for.
 
  • #27
alba said:
I am not asking for an exact value, but for an appproximation of 5 digits and surely [...]

But you did, and you do again ...
- At LHC or at any other sinchrotron, you know the exact energy provided, the magnetic field and the radius r of the collider
 
  • #28
Mister T said:
But you did, and you do again ...
When I say exact I mean accurate to five digits. The assumed value I gave is exact to 9 digits. Do you have any experimental data exact to five digits? If you have, please provide them, if you do not have them, why deny they can possibly exist? Also, until you or anybody provides those experimental data and compares them to the predicted values, how can one state that there is excellent agreement? This attitude is not scientific at all.
 
  • #29
alba said:
Yes, that is exactly what I am looking for
I don't have exactly that (plot of E vs v). But I do have a plot of E vs p. Since E, v, and p are so closely related often you get different combinations. This is considered an undergraduate laboratory, so the precision is not >5 digits.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1108.5977
 
  • #30
Dale said:
I don't have exactly that (plot of E vs v). But I do have a plot of E vs p. Since E, v, and p are so closely related often you get different combinations. This is considered an undergraduate laboratory, so the precision is not >5 digits.
Thanks a lot, Dale, a useful response at last. If you find something better, please remember to post it anytime.

I'd appreciate, as long as you are at it, if you cared to explain (with your usula clarity) what is the big deal in abjuring mass increase? It escapes me the point of referring to it with a verbal trick, calling it momentum. If you increase energy from 9 to 99 MeV, velocity increase is negligible, it is always roughly 3*10^10 cm/s, right? the increase of momentum is just an increase of mass, so what is the improvent ? It seems completely unnecessary, since bounf energy is always considered a mass increase in all other contexts, be it heat or glueing energy etc., so why discriminate kinetic energy? Increasing KE the mass of a body increases proportionally, what is the problem?

Thanks
 
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