Questions

[jajrussel]

I have an app that says that a rocket that is ten meters in length that is moving at 200000 k/s when viewed from Earth will be roughly 7.5 meters in length.

 

My understanding is that it's mass would increase because of it's velocity. Is this correct?

 

It is also measured smaller, so it would seem logical to assume that any densities associated to the ship would also increase. Is this correct?

[swansont]

I have an app that says that a rocket that is ten meters in length that is moving at 200000 k/s when viewed from Earth will be roughly 7.5 meters in length.

 

My understanding is that it's mass would increase because of it's velocity. Is this correct?

 

It is also measured smaller, so it would seem logical to assume that any densities associated to the ship would also increase. Is this correct?

 

 

The mass only increases if you redefine what you mean by mass. This is sometimes called relativistic mass, which is a proxy for total energy (m_rel = E/c²). Something that's moving has more energy than when at rest.

 

The density in the rocket's frame has not changed. Others would measure it as having increased.

[jajrussel]

I believe I understand relative mass. Should I apply the same understanding to the Rockets density? In a sense relative density?

 

An atom is measured small. There are parts of it that that do not move so fast. There are parts that have relativistic velocities. If we compare the two dimensionally as an observer. What would happen to that observation if we could slow the parts moving at relativistic speeds?

 

If my understanding is correct anyone on the rocket would notice no change in density. This seems to imply that the effects of relativity would only apply to an observer.

 

With the atom it seems that we have interacting forces between objects that seemingly exist within a volume of space that should very rapidly move from one extreme to the other if the space were fluid. I would expect one to rip the other apart, but they don't. I am probably not making any sense here. What makes the system stable?

[Mordred]

Sorry I didn't see this question earlier.

 

If you truly want to understand Mass, the best way is to first look at the definition of mass. "Resistance to inertia".

 

Now you can apply this to particles.

 

Key note particles are in essence excitations in a field. Not little bullets.

 

Every particle has a set of fields it will interact with. Some bosons specifically gauge bosons only interacts with its field and of course spacetime.

 

A particles rest mass is in a sense a measure of the interaction strength with the Strong, electroweak and indirectly through the Higgs field the weak force.

 

Spacetime essentially involves all other fields, in sense it's the distribution strength of all fields present at a particular locale.

 

Inertial mass being the interaction with spacetime, which is essentially a field or combination of all fields.

Plus observer effects which is included in the spacetime metric.

Edited April 14, 2016 by Mordred