Tagged Questions

3
votes
3answers
165 views

Energy conserved… or not? Confused!

I am confused. Could someone kindly explain what's going on in this question? A particle of mass $m$ and charge $e$ moves in the $x,y-$ plane. There is a constant magnetic field $B$ that points in ...
1
vote
1answer
66 views

particle accelerator in space

I'm attempting to learn special relativity and i'm having trouble calculating velocity and momentum for each part of the system after interactions. I wanted to know how fast a linear accelerator and ...
1
vote
2answers
103 views

Does the mass of a falling body decrease?

Let's say a body with m=2kg falls from 100 meters. Obviously it's speed would be far lower than the speed of light so the change in mass (if it exists) would be very tiny. However, I know that if the ...
3
votes
3answers
190 views

Potential energy in $E_f^2=(mc^2)^2+(pc)^2$?

Let's consider $$E_f^2=(mc^2)^2+(pc)^2$$ where the $mc^2$ is the rest energy due to the rest mass -- in Finnish "lepomassa". $$ \sqrt{(mc^2)^2+(pc)^2} - mc^2~=~(\gamma-1)mc^2$$ is the kinetic ...
2
votes
1answer
346 views

Conservation of Energy in Special Relativity

In classical Newtonian mechanics, from what I understand, conservation of energy stems from the fact that all known forces are conservative forces, and vector calculus tells us that they can be ...
5
votes
4answers
516 views

Does the stress-energy tensor contain the equations of motion?

Derivatives $\nabla_i T^{ik}=0$ of a stress-energy tensor of physical system express conservation laws. Whether contains a stress-energy tensor also the information on the equations of motion of ...
2
votes
1answer
130 views

Kinetic energy transfer in matter annihilation?

What happens to the kinetic energy of matter when it is annihilated? Is it released in the resultant explosion? In that case shouldn't it be $E=(mc^2 + \frac{1}{2} mv^2)$ ?
2
votes
1answer
416 views

How much energy can be extracted from hydrogen?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-L says that the difference between baryon number and lepton number is conserved. Ordinary hydrogen has one of each, but turning it into helium releases only the binding ...
11
votes
2answers
1k views

Is kinetic energy a relative quantity? Will it make inconsistent equations when applying it to the conservation of energy equations?

If the velocity is a relative quantity, will it make inconsistent equations when applying it to the conservation of energy equations? For example: In the train moving at $V$ relative to ground, ...