Special Relativity Flashcards
what was einstein’s claims in his theory of special relativity about light
that nothing can accelerate beyond the speed of light
what is a dilemma we came across with this statement when accelerating particles
- some particles in accelerators already travelling close to the speed of light
- should be accelerated beyond it when passed through a pd
what did william bertozzi demonstrate
- that at those speeds, particles deviate from the equation mv^2 / 2 = QV
- and so they never actually accelerate beyond the speed of light
in an experiment to measure the speed of electrons accelerated from a van de graaff generator, what did they practically do
- they collided the electron with a target
- measured the heat generated by that collision
- then used that to measure the kinetic energy the electron had
what did they observe during these experiments
that the energy gained from the accelerating pd started to become more than the amount expected from mv^2 / 2
what did this mean about the relationship between the particles momentum and their velocity
- the momentum of the particles can forever increase
- while their velocity has a limit
what conclusion did they therefore come to
the mass of the particle had to be increasing with its speed
what are relativistic speeds
speeds approaching light speed
in a graph of (v/c)^2 against E(k) / m(e) c^2, with v being the velocity of an electron, E(k) being kinetic energy and m(e) being the mass of an electron, what would the line drawn using newtonian mechanics look like
- a straight line with a positive gradient
- starting from the origin
what would that graph imply about the relationship between (v/c)^2 and E / mc^2
- that they were directly proportional
- (v/c)^2 dpt E / mc^2
if (v/c)^2 = k * E / mc^2, what would the constant be
- 2
- (v/c)^2 = 2E / mc^2
in a graph of (v/c)^2 against [1 - (mc^2 / (mc^2 + E)^2)], with v being the velocity of an electron, E being kinetic energy and m being the mass of an electron, what would the line drawn using newtonian mechanics look like
- an exponential x^1/2 or l graph
- but with the lien starting the origin
- the line would plateau just below (v/c)^” = 1
