insane_alien Posted July 9, 2007 Posted July 9, 2007 Hey, just need a physicist to clarify something for me. I'm trying to work out the energy of a projectile travelling at a significant fraction of c. i only know the rest mass and the velocity. as far as i can make out, the equation to use is: Ek= mc2(1/sqrt(1-v2/c2 - 1) i'm not sure whether the m is relativistic mass or rest mass. if it's rest mass then all is good, if it is relativistic mass then can someone show me the proper equation?
timo Posted July 9, 2007 Posted July 9, 2007 It's the rest-mass. Your equation lacks a ")" which supposedly is a typo. [math]E_{\text{kin}} = E - E_0 = m_{\gamma}c^2 - m_0c^2 = \gamma m_0 c^2 - m_0 c^2 = (\gamma - 1) m_0 c^2[/math] where [math]m_{\gamma}[/math] and [math]m_0[/math] are relativistic mass and rest-mass, respectively.
insane_alien Posted July 9, 2007 Author Posted July 9, 2007 Your equation lacks a ")" which supposedly is a typo. Thats the typo that usually causes my source code to fail to compile thanks for the help.
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