Relative momentum and relative mass

In summary: FAQ (the link given above by DrGreg).In summary, the conversation discusses the concept of momentum and its conservation from different perspectives and frames. The participants also question the need for mass to change in special relativity and how it affects momentum and energy. It is explained that mass does not actually change in relativity, but rather it is a concept of relativistic mass that is equivalent to energy. It is also suggested to focus on invariant mass and how it appears in equations to better understand inertia in relativity.
  • #36
Nugatory said:
where mRm_R is something that increases with speed
Well, mass is not increasing, but what I see as a moving observer for that mass is that its bigger. just illusion ? The left thing I need to know is about reality of mass change
When I see it changing" and it's not because it's sth like the total energy" how can I experience this relativistic increase ? And for a force that is not at rest according to the object. Does it have more force and more work to be accelerated ?? Gravity for example, when an object is in a free fall and after a while, what about force that is affecting it ?
I know Earth is not a frame of reference, but I mean ground
Another point, Isn't the gravitational force or work infinite ?
Thank you and sorry for bad English
 
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  • #37
Amr Elsayed said:
but what I see as a moving observer for that mass is that its bigger.

No, you do not see this. As has been explained to you repeatedly in this thread, relativistic mass is only a convention for making the expressions for total energy and momentum look more like the classical expressions. It has little to do with actual resistance to acceleration and in order to figure that one out you need to differentiate momentum with respect to time and you will get the result that the inertia depends on the direction (but always grows to be infinite when approaching the speed of light). This inertia is not what physicists call "mass".

Amr Elsayed said:
And for a force that is not at rest according to the object.
A force is not a thing which is at rest, it is a change of momentum of an object.

Amr Elsayed said:
Gravity for example, when an object is in a free fall and after a while, what about force that is affecting it ?
As already pointed out to you, gravity is a very bad example when it comes to special relativity.
 
  • #38
Orodruin said:
As has been explained to you repeatedly in this thread
Thank you for explaining it repeatedly, but in deed I didn't mean it. All I meant was the question : how I will experience relativistic mass . My bad English doesn't help me choose the most suitable words to explain. Any way, you tell me I shall not experience it, and it's just mathematical
Thank you
 
  • #39
Amr Elsayed said:
Thank you but it's not my problem, I want to learn about relativistic mass, I heard sth like we know it changes because of relativity and conservation of momentum [..]
If you are near to a library, you may check out for example Feynman's lectures on physics. He explained rather well the usefulness of "relativistic mass". :smile: Also Alonso&Finn's physics books are good for that.

Note however that in the end it's just a matter of definitions, and our preferences are related to our philosophy. :oldeyes:

There are also old threads on that topic worth reading, such as https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/relativistic-mass-in-six-not-so-easy-pieces-feynman.808533/
 
  • #40
  • #41
Amr Elsayed said:
[..] The left thing I need to know is about reality of mass change
When I see it changing" and it's not because it's sth like the total energy" how can I experience this relativistic increase ? And for a force that is not at rest according to the object. Does it have more force and more work to be accelerated ?? [..]
Thank you and sorry for bad English
Too many questions, I take here the simplest and most straightforward one. What you are really asking, is if one needs to put more work into accelerating an object at high speed, so that it truly carries additional kinetic energy that cannot be explained by speed increase alone. Yes, that is the case, and it has been demonstrated as an educational experiment by Bertozzi :

- http://iopscience.iop.org/0031-9120/33/3/019
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tests_of_relativistic_energy_and_momentum#Bertozzi_experiment

As you can read, this additional kinetic energy was measured as generated heat from impact.
Alternative theories that explain the maximum speed of c by saying that simply less and less energy is transferred to a fast moving particle, were thus disproved.

PS. I now see that the more recent paper to which I linked, only briefly discusses that pertinent feature of Bertozzi's experiment. I do have a copy of the original paper.
 
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  • #42
harrylin said:
that is the case
yeah, I needed a confirmation that more work is needed to keep accelerating an object, but mass is not really changing. I wonder why more work is needed
 
  • #43
Amr Elsayed said:
yeah, I needed a confirmation that more work is needed to keep accelerating an object, but mass is not really changing. I wonder why more work is needed
Once more, that is a matter of interpretation / definitions. According to what you call mass, mass changes. According to what most other people here call mass, mass does not change. What is useful is not to linger on definitions (except for clarification) but on physics.
 
  • #44
I know that, but I was talking about mass which is resistance to be accelerated. I think it does change ,but not sure
 
  • #45
Amr Elsayed said:
I know that, but I was talking about mass which is resistance to be accelerated. I think it does change ,but not sure
Yes, the resistance against acceleration increases with speed.
 
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  • #46
Thanks so much
 
  • #47
Amr Elsayed said:
mass which is resistance to be accelerated

That is one definition of mass. In Newtonian mechanics, there are various ways to define mass, which all give the same value. In relativistic mechanics, they do not all give the same value, so we have to choose one.

Most physicists today use a definition of mass which makes mass a property of an object that is invariant between different reference frames, i.e. does not change with the object's speed. They agree that "resistance to acceleration" increases with an object's speed; they simply do not use it as the definition of mass.
 
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  • #48
Amr Elsayed said:
I know that, but I was talking about mass which is resistance to be accelerated. I think it does change ,but not sure
I'm just going to repeat what all of you have said, according to Einstein's mass-energy equivalence, mass is energy, on the other hand, mass depends on how much matter are there, which when going at high speed won't change so the "real" mass won't change, yet when going at high speed, the object start to resist acceleration, it has more inertia, this might seem to anyone in the universe like it's mass have changed by the fact F = ma, but NOO !The mass doesn't change, moving objects have some special type of energy, which is kinetic energy, this energy be added to the system's energy and returning to E = Mc^2, you notice that the "Mass" have changed, but it's the universe laughing on you ! and it happens that M = m/sqrt(1-(v/c)^2), so the relativistic momentum in what it is p = (ym)v = Mv, because different frames can see you moving different speeds, momentum, energy, time, length, are all frame dependant, and mass is energy !
 
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  • #49
harrylin said:
the resistance against acceleration increases with speed.

But it also depends on direction: the resistance to force applied parallel to the direction of motion is different from the resistance to force applied perpendicular to the direction of motion.

And, all of this is "resistance" to "force" as viewed from a reference frame in which the object is moving. But to the object itself, there is only one "resistance" to force, which is its rest mass. In other words, if you view things from a frame in which the object is momentarily at rest--which, physically, represents the force the object itself feels, for example, the force the crew of a spaceship feels as the ship's engines fire--then the object's rest mass is what determines its "resistance" to force. So the whole business about resistance increasing with speed, and being different in different directions, is just unnecessary confusion; you don't need any of it to analyze problems and make predictions.
 
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  • #50
PeterDonis said:
[..] the whole business about resistance increasing with speed, and being different in different directions, is just unnecessary confusion [..]
I wonder what you find confusing about it? Understanding the relationship between inertia and energy is helpful for physical understanding. :oldeyes:
 
  • #51
PeterDonis ,I think direction is not that important. If you affect a moving object with a right angle to its motion, this has nothing to do with its movement. Just will move in 2 direction. And you will find only rest mass as a resistance. Resistance increases to acceleration in its direction when speed increases, and that's because of inertia. Only if there is a relative velocity between the force and the object.
I hope you correct any wrong point of mine
regards,
 
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  • #52
Amr Elsayed said:
PeterDonis ,I think direction is not that important. If you affect a moving object with a right angle to its motion, this has nothing to do with its movement. Just will move in 2 direction. And you will find only rest mass as a resistance. Resistance increases to acceleration in its direction when speed increases, and that's because of inertia. Only if there is a relative velocity between the force and the object.
I hope you correct any wrong point
regards,
Hi Amr, if you are moving an object in a right angle to its motion then you measure not its "rest mass" m0 but its "relativistic mass", γm0. That is a measure of its already increased total energy, which doesn't change by that action as the speed remains constant. A fast moving object should thus feel "heavier" even when pushing sideways.

However, if you accelerate an object in the direction of its motion then you need to do much extra work as you are not only measuring its energy but also increasing its kinetic energy. This doing of extra work is felt as additional resistance to acceleration.
 
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  • #53
Amr Elsayed said:
I think direction is not that important. If you affect a moving object with a right angle to its motion, this has nothing to do with its movement. Just will move in 2 direction. And you will find only rest mass as a resistance.

If you apply a force at right angles to the direction of movement of an object, the object's speed will not change but its velocity will change. The change in velocity is given by ##\vec{F}=\gamma{m}_0\vec{a}##.

If you apply a force in the direction of movement of an object, the object's speed and velocity will both change. The change in velocity is given by ##\vec{F}=\gamma^3{m}_0\vec{a}##.

Thus, the direction is important; one way you get a factor of ##\gamma## and the other way you get a factor of ##\gamma^3##. In neither case is the resistance equal to the rest mass.
 
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  • #54
harrylin said:
if you are moving an object in a right angle to its motion then you measure not its "rest mass" m0 but its "relativistic mass", γm0. That is a measure of its already increased total energy,
Hi , yeah and that's also because of inertia which gets bigger for a moving object even when you try to change its direction ?? " that's a question"

Nugatory said:
Thus, the direction is important; one way you get a factor of γ\gamma and the other way you get a factor of γ3\gamma^3. In neither case is the resistance equal to the rest mass
Velocity as a component will of course change, but velocity in the first direction will stay same, right ??
Would you please tell me how to get those equations. I mean resistance as gamma^3 times mass or gamma times mass
 
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  • #55
By the way, I meant " correct any wrong point of mine "
 
  • #56
Amr Elsayed said:
Velocity as a component will of course change, but velocity in the first direction will stay same ??
I have no idea what you mean by "velocity as a component", but the component of the velocity vector in the direction of motion does not stay the same. This is elementary circular motion from classical physics.
Would you please tell me how to get those equations. I mean resistance as gamma^3 times mass or gamma times mass
If you google for "longitudinal transverse mass" you will find plenty of good derivations.
 
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  • #57
Amr Elsayed said:
Hi , yeah and that's also because of inertia which gets bigger for a moving object even when you try to change its direction ?? " that's a question" [..]
Yes, once more: the already increased energy can be detected as increased inertia.
If I recall correctly, that is the Feynman procedure to measure relativistic mass.
 
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  • #58
Nugatory said:
but the component of the velocity vector in the direction of motion does not stay the same. This is elementary circular motion from classical physics.
I mean the force will not be affecting it all the time. Like a projectile moving forward under effect of gravity. my push has nothing to do with vertical component downward. And so, If an object is moving and I affected it by a force perpendicular to its movement, I shall experience a resistance bigger than its rest mass because of inertia. This means that mechanics which I was talking about is just an approximate of realty The thing I don't know is how both resistances are different but I will be searching after it. I needed to know that direction really affects it as PeterDonis said and he was right

Thank you all :smile:
 
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