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In physics, the kinetic energy of an object is the form of energy that it possesses due to its motion. [ 1 ] In classical mechanics , the kinetic energy of a non-rotating object of mass m traveling at a speed v is 1 2 m v 2 {\textstyle {\frac {1}{2}}mv^{2}} .
v is the relative velocity between inertial reference frames, c is the speed of light in vacuum, β is the ratio of v to c, t is coordinate time, τ is the proper time for an observer (measuring time intervals in the observer's own frame). This is the most frequently used form in practice, though not the only one (see below for alternative forms).
In physics, particularly in mechanics, specific kinetic energy is a fundamental concept that refers to the kinetic energy per unit mass of a body or system of bodies in motion. The specific kinetic energy of a system is a crucial parameter in understanding its dynamic behavior and plays a key role in various scientific and engineering applications.
In the fundamental branches of modern physics, namely general relativity and its widely applicable subset special relativity, as well as relativistic quantum mechanics and relativistic quantum field theory, the Lorentz transformation is the transformation rule under which all four-vectors and tensors containing physical quantities transform from one frame of reference to another.
The following notations are used very often in special relativity: Lorentz factor = where = and v is the relative velocity between two inertial frames.. For two frames at rest, γ = 1, and increases with relative velocity between the two inertial frames.
It is common in particle physics, where units of mass and energy are often interchanged, to express mass in units of eV/c 2, where c is the speed of light in vacuum (from E = mc 2). It is common to informally express mass in terms of eV as a unit of mass, effectively using a system of natural units with c set to 1. [3] The kilogram equivalent ...
Log-log plot of γ (blue), v/c (cyan), and η (yellow) versus proper velocity w/c (i.e. momentum p/mc).Note that w/c is tracked by v/c at low speeds and by γ at high speeds. The dashed red curve is γ − 1 (kinetic energy K/mc 2), while the dashed magenta curve is the relativistic Doppler factor.
[1] This is achieved by photons to the extent that effects described by special relativity are able to describe those of such particles themselves. Several approaches exist as a means of describing the motion of single and multiple relativistic particles, with a prominent example being postulations through the Dirac equation of single particle ...