Length Contraction Affect on Mass: Physics Explained

[NotAMethDealer]

If an object is going at near C(light velocity) and undergoes length contraction. Does the mass fluctuate?I apologize if it is an obvious question but I'm a little rusty on my physics.

 

[bcrowell]

This is more a matter of convention than a matter of fact. The older convention was to say that mass would go up by a factor of gamma: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativistic_mass#Relativistic_mass In that convention, momentum was still p=mv. Since about 1950, relativists have no longer used that convention. They take mass to be invariant and write $p=m\gamma v$. Either way, it's not an effect caused by length contraction.