How fast?

Given that:

E 2 = ( m 0 c 2 1 v 2 c 2 ) 2 + ( m 0 v c 1 v 2 c 2 ) 2 E^2 = \left(\frac{m_0c^2}{\sqrt{1 - \frac{v^2}{c^2}}}\right)^2 + \left(\frac{m_0vc}{\sqrt{1 - \frac{v^2}{c^2}}}\right)^2

How fast would an object with a rest mass of 1 Pg 1 \text{ Pg} need to be going to have the same 'mass' as an object with a rest mass of 5.5 Pg 5.5 \text{ Pg} ?

Give your answer as a fraction of c c to 6 .d.p 6\text{.d.p} . For example, if you got 37 , 011 , 178 ms 1 37,011,178 \text{ ms}^{-1} then you would answer with 0.123456 0.123456 as 37 , 011 , 178 ms 1 = 0.123456 c 37,011,178 \text{ ms}^{-1} = 0.123456 c to 6 .d.p 6\text{.d.p} .

Details and Assumptions

  • E E is energy in J J .
  • m 0 m_0 is rest mass in Kg \text {Kg} .
  • v v is velocity in ms 1 \text{ms}^{-1} .
  • 'Mass' refers to an objects mass-energy.
  • Assume the second object has only mass-energy and no other types.
  • c = 299 , 792 , 458 ms 1 c = 299,792,458 \text{ ms}^{-1} .
  • 1 Pg = 1 0 12 Kg 1 \text{ Pg} = 10^{12} \text{ Kg} .
  • The equation at the top of the page is the complete mass-energy equivalence equation.


The answer is 0.967471.

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1 solution

Jack Rawlin
Dec 27, 2015

First we need to re-arrange the equation to make v v the subject since that is what we're calculating. It's a bit long winded so you can skip ahead if you want.

E 2 = ( m 0 c 2 1 v 2 c 2 ) 2 + ( m 0 v c 1 v 2 c 2 ) 2 E^2 = \left(\frac{m_0c^2}{\sqrt{1 - \frac{v^2}{c^2}}}\right)^2 + \left(\frac{m_0vc}{\sqrt{1 - \frac{v^2}{c^2}}}\right)^2

E 2 = m 0 2 c 4 1 v 2 c 2 + m 0 2 v 2 c 2 1 v 2 c 2 E^2 = \frac{m_0^2c^4}{1 - \frac{v^2}{c^2}} + \frac{m_0^2v^2c^2}{1 - \frac{v^2}{c^2}}

E 2 = m 0 2 c 4 + m 0 2 v 2 c 2 1 v 2 c 2 E^2 = \frac{m_0^2c^4 + m_0^2v^2c^2}{1 - \frac{v^2}{c^2}}

E 2 ( 1 v 2 c 2 ) = m 0 2 c 4 + m 0 2 v 2 c 2 E^2\left(1 - \frac{v^2}{c^2}\right) = m_0^2c^4 + m_0^2v^2c^2

E 2 E 2 v 2 c 2 = m 0 2 c 4 + m 0 2 v 2 c 2 E^2 - \frac{E^2v^2}{c^2} = m_0^2c^4 + m_0^2v^2c^2

E 2 = m 0 2 c 4 + m 0 2 v 2 c 2 + E 2 v 2 c 2 E^2 = m_0^2c^4 + m_0^2v^2c^2 + \frac{E^2v^2}{c^2}

E 2 m 0 2 c 4 = v 2 ( m 0 2 c 2 + E 2 c 2 ) E^2 - m_0^2c^4 = v^2\left(m_0^2c^2 + \frac{E^2}{c^2}\right)

v 2 = E 2 m 0 2 c 4 m 0 2 c 2 + E 2 c 2 v^2 = \frac{E^2 - m_0^2c^4}{m_0^2c^2 + \frac{E^2}{c^2}}

v = E 2 m 0 2 c 4 m 0 2 c 2 + E 2 c 2 v = \sqrt{\frac{E^2 - m_0^2c^4}{m_0^2c^2 + \frac{E^2}{c^2}}}

This is much easier to work with now, however we only know m 0 m_0 so we can't work out v v just yet. We're missing a value for E E , luckily we've been given a second mass to work with. Why does this help? Because we now have the required components to substitute in E = m c 2 E = mc^2 .

v = ( m c 2 ) 2 m 0 2 c 4 m 0 2 c 2 + ( m c 2 ) 2 c 2 v = \sqrt{\frac{(mc^2)^2 - m_0^2c^4}{m_0^2c^2 + \frac{(mc^2)^2}{c^2}}}

Simplifying this down gives us:

v = m 2 c 4 m 0 2 c 4 m 0 2 c 2 + m 2 c 4 c 2 v = \sqrt{\frac{m^2c^4 - m_0^2c^4}{m_0^2c^2 + \frac{m^2c^4}{c^2}}}

v = c 4 ( m 2 m 0 2 ) m 0 2 c 2 + m 2 c 2 v = \sqrt{\frac{c^4(m^2 - m_0^2)}{m_0^2c^2 + m^2c^2}}

v = c 4 ( m 2 m 0 2 ) c 2 ( m 2 + m 0 2 ) v = \sqrt{\frac{c^4(m^2 - m_0^2)}{c^2(m^2+ m_0^2)}}

v = c 2 ( m 2 m 0 2 ) m 2 + m 0 2 v = \sqrt{\frac{c^2(m^2 - m_0^2)}{m^2+ m_0^2}}

v = c m 2 m 0 2 m 2 + m 0 2 v = c\sqrt{\frac{m^2 - m_0^2}{m^2+ m_0^2}}

Now all we have to do is substitute in values for m 0 m_0 and m m , 1 0 12 10^{12} and 5.5 1 0 12 5.5 \cdot 10^{12} respectively.

v = c ( 5.5 1 0 12 ) 2 ( 1 0 12 ) 2 ( 5.5 1 0 12 ) 2 + ( 1 0 12 ) 2 v = c\sqrt{\frac{(5.5\cdot10^{12})^2 - (10^{12})^2}{(5.5\cdot10^{12})^2 + (10^{12})^2}}

v = c 30.25 1 0 24 1 0 24 30.25 1 0 24 + 1 0 24 v = c\sqrt{\frac{30.25\cdot10^{24} - 10^{24}}{30.25\cdot10^{24} + 10^{24}}}

v = c 29.25 1 0 24 31.25 1 0 24 v = c\sqrt{\frac{29.25 \cdot 10^{24}}{31.25 \cdot 10^{24}}}

v = c 29.25 31.25 v = c\sqrt{\frac{29.25}{31.25}}

v = c 0.936 v = c\sqrt{0.936}

v = 0.96747092... c v = 0.96747092...c

Now that we have a value we just need to round it to 6 .d.p 6\text{.d.p} .

v = 0.967471 c v = 0.967471c

The question requires that we give just the numerical part of the answer so the answer is 0.967471 \boxed{0.967471}

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