202110121413 Exercise 8.5.B (Q21)

This exercise is related to Einstein’s famous law $E=mc^2$ . The relativistic momentum $p$ of a particle of mass $m$ moving at a speed $v$ along a straight line (say, the $x$ -axis) is

$\displaystyle{p=\frac{mv}{\sqrt{1-\frac{v^2}{c^2}}}}$ ,

where $c$ is the speed of light. The relativistic force on the particle along that line is

$\displaystyle{F=\frac{\mathrm{d}p}{\mathrm{d}t}}$ ,

which is the same formula as Newton’s Second Law of motion in classical mechanics. Assume that the particle starts at rest at position $x_1$ and ends at position $x_2$ along the $x$ -axis. The work done by the force $F$ on the particle is:

$\displaystyle{W=\int_{x_1}^{x_2}F\,\mathrm{d}x=\int_{x_1}^{x_2}\frac{\mathrm{d}p}{\mathrm{d}t}\,\mathrm{d}x}$

(a) Show that

$\displaystyle{\frac{\mathrm{d}p}{\mathrm{d}v}=\frac{m}{\bigg( \displaystyle{1-\frac{v^2}{c^2}}\bigg)^{3/2}}}$ .

(b) Use the Chain Rule formula

$\displaystyle{\frac{\mathrm{d}p}{\mathrm{d}t}=\frac{\mathrm{d}p}{\mathrm{d}v}\frac{\mathrm{d}v}{\mathrm{d}x}\frac{\mathrm{d}x}{\mathrm{d}t}}$

to show that

$\displaystyle{F\,\mathrm{d}x=v\frac{\mathrm{d}p}{\mathrm{d}v}\,\mathrm{d}v}$ .

(c) Use parts (a) and (b) to show that

$\displaystyle{W=\int_{0}^{v}\frac{\mathrm{d}p}{\mathrm{d}v}\, v\,\mathrm{d}v=\int_{0}^{v}\frac{mv}{\bigg(\displaystyle{ 1-\frac{v^2}{c^2}}\bigg)^{3/2}}\,\mathrm{d}v}$ .

(d) Use part (c) to show that

$\displaystyle{W=\frac{mc^2}{\sqrt{1-\frac{v^2}{c^2}}}-mc^2}$ .

(e) Define the relativistic kinetic energy $K$ of the particle to be $K=W$ , and define the total energy $E$ to be

$\displaystyle{E=\frac{mc^2}{\sqrt{1-\frac{v^2}{c^2}}}}$ .

So by part (d), $K=E-mc^2$ . Show that

$E^2=p^2c^2+(mc^2)^2$ .

(Hint: Expand the right side of that equation.)

(f) What is $E$ when the particle is at rest?

Solution.

(a)

$\begin{aligned} \frac{\mathrm{d}p}{\mathrm{d}v} & = \frac{\mathrm{d}}{\mathrm{d}v}\bigg( \frac{mv}{\sqrt{1-\frac{v^2}{c^2}}}\bigg) \\ & = \frac{\bigg(\sqrt{1-\displaystyle{\frac{v^2}{c^2}}}\bigg)(m)-(mv)\bigg(\displaystyle{\frac{1}{2}}\Big( 1-\displaystyle{\frac{v^2}{c^2}}\Big)^{-1/2}\Big( -\displaystyle{\frac{2v}{c^2}}\Big)\bigg)}{\bigg(\sqrt{1-\displaystyle{\frac{v^2}{c^2}}}\bigg)^2} \\ & = \frac{\bigg( 1-\displaystyle{\frac{v^2}{c^2}}\bigg) (m)-(mv)\bigg( \displaystyle{-\frac{v}{c^2}}\bigg)}{\bigg( 1-\displaystyle{\frac{v^2}{c^2}}\bigg)^{3/2}} \\ & = \frac{m}{\bigg( 1-\displaystyle{\frac{v^2}{c^2}}\bigg)^{3/2}} \end{aligned}$

(b)

$\begin{aligned} \int_{x_1}^{x_2}F\,\mathrm{d}x & = \int_{x_1}^{x_2}\frac{\mathrm{d}p}{\mathrm{d}t}\,\mathrm{d}x \\ \int_{x_1}^{x_2}F\,\mathrm{d}x & = \int_{x_1}^{x_2}\frac{\mathrm{d}p}{\mathrm{d}v}\frac{\mathrm{d}v}{\mathrm{d}x}\frac{\mathrm{d}x}{\mathrm{d}t}\,\mathrm{d}x \\ F\,\mathrm{d}x & = \frac{\mathrm{d}p}{\mathrm{d}v}\frac{\mathrm{d}v}{\mathrm{d}x}\frac{\mathrm{d}x}{\mathrm{d}t}\,\mathrm{d}x \\ & = v\,\frac{\mathrm{d}p}{\mathrm{d}v}\,\mathrm{d}v\\ \end{aligned}$

(c)

$\begin{aligned} W & =\int_{0}^{v}\frac{\mathrm{d}p}{\mathrm{d}v}\, v\,\mathrm{d}v \\ & = \int_{0}^{v}\Bigg( \frac{m}{\big( 1-\frac{v^2}{c^2}\big)^{3/2}}\Bigg) (v)\,\mathrm{d}v\\ & =\int_{0}^{v}\frac{mv}{\bigg(\displaystyle{ 1-\frac{v^2}{c^2}}\bigg)^{3/2}}\,\mathrm{d}v \\ \end{aligned}$ .

(d)

$\begin{aligned} W & = \int_{0}^{v}\frac{mv}{\bigg(\displaystyle{1-\frac{v^2}{c^2}}\bigg)^{3/2}}\,\mathrm{d}v \\ \dots\enspace & \textrm{let }u=\frac{v}{c}\enspace\dots \\ \dots\enspace & \textrm{then }\mathrm{d}v=c\,\mathrm{d}u\enspace\dots \\ & = \int_{0}^{\frac{v}{c}}\frac{mc^2u}{(1-u^2)^{\frac{3}{2}}}\,\mathrm{d}u \\ \dots\enspace & \textrm{let }u=\sin\theta\enspace\dots \\ \dots\enspace & \textrm{then }\mathrm{d}u=\cos\theta\,\mathrm{d}\theta\enspace\dots \\ & = \int\frac{mc^2\sin\theta}{\cos^3\theta}\cdot\cos\theta\,\mathrm{d}\theta \\ & = \int\frac{mc^2\sin\theta}{\cos^2\theta}\,\mathrm{d}\theta \\ \dots\enspace & \textrm{let }w=\cos\theta\enspace\dots \\ \dots\enspace & \textrm{then }\mathrm{d}w=-\sin\theta\,\mathrm{d}\theta\enspace\dots \\ & \quad -\int \frac{mc^2}{w^2}\,\mathrm{d}w \\ & = \frac{mc^2}{w} \\ & = \frac{mc^2}{\cos\theta} \\ & = mc^2\sec\theta \\ & = \frac{mc^2}{\sqrt{1-u^2}} \\ & = \enspace\dots \\ & = \bigg[\frac{mc^2}{\sqrt{1-u^2}}\bigg]\bigg|^{\frac{v}{c}}_{0} \\ & = \frac{mc^2}{\sqrt{1-\displaystyle{\frac{v^2}{c^2}}}}-mc^2 \\ \end{aligned}$

Parts (e) and (f) are left to the readers.

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