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Re: KuJomu - the writing

From:Andreas Johansson <and_yo@...>
Date:Tuesday, November 12, 2002, 18:05
Christophe Grandsire:

> > (And to be even more modern, your E is the Minkowski norm of the > > energy-momentum four-vector, and in the particle view the energy > > component is again m c^2). > > > >Only in the rest frame of the particle. Like I said, nearly nobody ever >takes m >to be the relativistic mass. Even Einstein himself rarely used this >convention.
Which didn't stop the authors of one of my textbooks at high school using the relativistic mass m. Evidently, they thought it was nifty to have the (visually) identical formula p=mv for the [can't recall English term] in both Classical and Relativistic Mechanics. Or as a physics Prof explained it to me: "Damn kindergarten teachers who can't realize that p=mv is a convenient notation for a useful approximation and not a divine decree!". Andreas _________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your e-mail with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail