1.

20 Important Relativistic Relationships 25

1.20.1 Relativistic Mass m

Newton’s classical equation of motion is preserved in relativistic mechanics,

i.e.,
d

p
F
= , (1.29)
dt
where p
is the momentum of a particle acted upon by force F
. The momentum
p
is proportional to the velocity
υ of a particle through the relationship
p
= m
υ , (1.30)
where m is the mass of the particle dependent on the magnitude of the particle
velocity υ, i.e., m = m(υ).
The mass m(υ) is referred to as the relativistic mass of a particle and is
given by the Einstein expression (see Fig. 1.4 and Table 1.4)
mo mo
m(υ) =  = = γmo , (1.31)
2
1− υc2 1−β 2
or
m(υ) 1 1
= = =γ, (1.32)
mo 1− υ2 1 − β2
c2

where
mo is the mass of a particle at υ = 0 referred to as the particle rest mass,
c is the speed of light in vacuum, a universal constant,
β is υ/c, i.e., particle velocity υ normalized to speed of light c,
γ is √ 1 2 or √ 1 2 2 .
1−β 1−(υ /c )

Table 1.4. Mass versus velocity according to (1.32)

(υ/c) = β 0.1 0.25 0.5 0.75 0.9 0.99 0.999 0.9999

(m/mo ) = γ 1.005 1.033 1.155 1.512 2.294 7.089 22.37 70.71

and Relativistic Acceleration

1.20.2 Relativistic Force F a

In classical physics the Newton’s second law of mechanics is given as follows:

dp d
υ
F
= = mo = mo
a , (1.33)
dt dt
indicating that the acceleration
a is parallel to force F
, and that mass mo is
constant.