Relativity versus Newtonian gravity

Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
2 replies · 1K views
James Nelson
Messages
13
Reaction score
0
I asked recently on another thread about relativity and its affect on gravitation. I have been informed that gravity is due to how energy bends spacetime, not the Newtonian idea of mass or even the special "relativistic mass."

However this leaves me wondering why general relativity does not involve velocity in its equations. According to E=(mc^2)/sqrt(1-v^2/c^2), relative velocity does have an impact on the total energy of an object. If so, why is it that an object traveling relative to Earth doesn't produce a larger gravitational attraction to Earth than an object of equal rest mass that is stationary?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
James Nelson said:
However this leaves me wondering why general relativity does not involve velocity in its equations.

It does. In GR the source of gravity is the stress-energy-tensor which depends on velocity.
 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: James Nelson
James Nelson said:
I have been informed that gravity is due to how energy bends spacetime, not the Newtonian idea of mass or even the special "relativistic mass."
It is the stress energy tensor which includes the density of energy, momentum, and stress.
 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: James Nelson