- #1
Jonnyb42
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Relative energy of simple 2 particle system (confused!)
Ok so I have a simple question which I feel I should know the answer to:
Setup:
Two particles of different mass.. say M and m (where M > m) are moving past each other by some constant velocity. If we view the energy of the system from m.. or fix our reference on m, we observe some energy of the total system.
Why is the energy of the system dependent on which particle we use as reference??
Shouldn't the energy of the system be the same regardless of reference frame?
(What I mean is, the energy is the total potential, plus the kinetic of the one that is moving. This energy is greater for the smaller mass, because it sees M moving with K = 1/2 M v^2, while the mass M sees m moving with K = 1/2 m v^2)
thanks
Ok so I have a simple question which I feel I should know the answer to:
Setup:
Two particles of different mass.. say M and m (where M > m) are moving past each other by some constant velocity. If we view the energy of the system from m.. or fix our reference on m, we observe some energy of the total system.
Why is the energy of the system dependent on which particle we use as reference??
Shouldn't the energy of the system be the same regardless of reference frame?
(What I mean is, the energy is the total potential, plus the kinetic of the one that is moving. This energy is greater for the smaller mass, because it sees M moving with K = 1/2 M v^2, while the mass M sees m moving with K = 1/2 m v^2)
thanks