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2 votes
2 answers
284 views

Acceleration without a force in special relativity

Let us consider a relativistic particle of mass $m$ and charge $q$ in a constant electric field $\mathbf{E}=E\mathbf{\hat{j}}$ moving in two spatial dimensions, a relativistic extension of the well-...
3 votes
0 answers
62 views

Why does the photon in Compton Scattering have a minimum frequency/maximum wavelenght?

Using conservation of four-momentum one finds that, with respect to the angle of deviation of the photon from its original direction $\theta$, the wavelength and frequency of the emitted photon are: $ ...
1 vote
3 answers
3k views

How to prove the relativistic momentum? [duplicate]

As far as I know, the relativistic momentum of a particle is given by the equation: $$p=\frac{m_0v}{\sqrt{1-\frac{v^2}{c^2}}}$$ where $m_0$ is the mass of the particle and $v$ is the velocity of the ...
1 vote
1 answer
1k views

Calculating an "apparent" speed of a beam in a medium

While thinking about relativity, one question sparked my curiosity. If we could observe the trajectory of a light beam by using some partially opaque medium, like smoke, to make it visible, we'd not ...
7 votes
4 answers
3k views

Is there a formula that gives the position of an object depending on the time, but which doesn't allow the object to surpass the speed of light?

I have found these two formulas: $v = at + v_0$ $x = \frac{1}{2}at^2 + v_0t + x_0$ a is the acceleration v is the velocity x is the position t is the time $v_0$ is the initial velocity $x_0$ is the ...
0 votes
2 answers
212 views

Query into the cumulative velocity of mounted platforms

Consider throwing a stone at an object from rest, it travels at Vms-1. Now throw that stone whilst running at Ums-1. It seems in the latter scenario the total speed of stone is V + U. Now imagine ...