Summary
Nothing can go faster than the speed of light.
How is this speed limit enforced?
- The faster you go, the more massive you become!
- A force causes a body to accelerate: momentum changes
- As the speed increases, more and more of the the energy goes into increased mass and less and less into increased velocity
- Never reach the speed of light!
Energy and mass are equivalent: E = mc2
- Unifies two concepts that were totally previously disconnected
- Nevertheless, agrees with Newton’s formulas for small v
- Applies to ALL forms of energy and mass
- Usually too small to be detected
- Output of large power plant for 1 year ~ 1 Kg
- Nuclear energy involves larger changes in energy
- Rest mass of nuclei converted into kinetic energy
- 1 gram of mass ~ energy released in an atomic bomb