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Alternatives to Relativistic Mass


Special Relativity (SR) tells us that objects should increase in mass as they get faster.
When at rest relative to an observer, an object has a fixed mass, called ‘rest mass’. As the
object increases its speed relative to the observer, it will become steadily heavier. And as
it approaches the speed of light the mass will become infinite.

This is called relativistic mass (RM). The degree of mass increase will be in accordance with
the Lorentz Transform (LT). The effect of RM is to slow the acceleration of an object and
prevent it from reaching light speed. For example suppose we have the following setup:

A simple particle accelerator (shown above) is constructed by placing two electrically


charged plates at either side of a vacuum tube. Inside the tube is a single electron. Initially
the plates are neutral and the electron is at rest. When a voltage is applied to the plates
this creates a uniform electrical field inside the tube. This field then applies a force to the
electron which causes it accelerate. The extent of acceleration can be calculated using
factors of mass, charge and voltage.

According to SR, as the speed of the electron approaches the speed of light, its mass will
become increasingly greater and this will inhibit further acceleration. As a result the
electron will never quite reach light speed because to do so would require accelerating an
infinite mass.

Unlike the problems earlier presented with time dilation and length contraction, RM
contains no inherent contradictions. For example an increase in the electron’s mass
relative to the accelerator should also require a corresponding increase in the mass of the
accelerator relative to the electron. But since the accelerator is already vastly heavier than
the electron it makes no difference whether its mass increases or not; i.e. it already has
enough inertia to resist the recoil of a heavier electron.

Mass vs. Charge

Assuming that experimental evidence is correct in confirming a decrease in acceleration as


particles move towards light speed, might there be other ways of explaining this
phenomenon, other than by suggesting a mass increase? While it is true that an increase
in mass would certainly slow the rate of acceleration, it is also true that a decrease in
charge could achieve the same. In other words, suppose that as a particle increased in
speed, its electrical charge steadily decreased toward, and became zero at light speed. In
this situation, the amount of electrical force experienced by the particle would decrease,
and this would slow acceleration. The end result would be the same – a light-speed limit.

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This concept of charge-decrease has a distinct advantage over the concept of mass-
increase: It is far easier to imagine zero charge than it is to imagine infinite mass. Infinites
can’t exist in nature, whereas ‘zeros’ can.

This is not to suggest that charge-decrease is the correct explanation since there is no
particular reason why either phenomenon should occur. Instead I would like to present a
different explanation for the phenomenon of acceleration decrease that is more in-line with
classical mechanics and common sense.

The Wind Tunnel

Imagine a wind tunnel such as that shown below. It has fans at both ends to ensure a
smooth flow of air at constant speed along its length. The fans are initially off. At one end
of the tunnel is a marble. The marble sits in the cross-sectional centre of the tunnel so
we’ll need to imagine that this is a zero gravity environment or that the marble is
somehow magnetically suspended away from the tunnel walls.

Now let’s turn on the fans. Very quickly the air in the tunnel accelerates to a constant
velocity as determined by the fan speed. This moving air applies a force on the marble
which then accelerates. Under the constant influence of this force the marble moves
increasingly faster along the tunnel.

What happens as the marble approaches the speed of the wind? The acceleration slows
down. As the marble approaches the wind speed the acceleration decreases because the
relative speed of the wind on the marble becomes ever smaller. The net result is that the
marble will become ever closer to the wind speed but, in theory, never quite reach it.

So why did the marble slow down is it approached wind speed? Was it because its mass
increased toward infinity as it neared wind speed? Of course not! The reason it slowed
down is that the force on the marble was decreasing as the wind speed relative to the
marble decreased. Once it reached wind speed there was no more force and therefore no
more acceleration.

Well, I’m going to suggest that the electron in the earlier example slowed its acceleration
for much the same reason. As you can see this wind tunnel is analogous to the particle
accelerator. Simply replace ‘wind tunnel’ with ‘particle accelerator’; ‘marble’ with ‘electron’;
‘fans’ with ‘charged plates’; and ‘wind’ with ‘electric field’.

A static electric field is just light – light with zero frequency. It emerges from the plates at
exactly light speed. It exerts a force on the electron, initially at light speed. Does it not
make sense to say that this force should decrease as the speed difference between the
electron and the field decreases? And if the electron is moving away from the field at the

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same speed that the field is approaching it, then how could the field possibly exert any
force on it? It is difficult to imagine how it could.

Here’s a better example: Imagine that the accelerator had just been switched on and the
electron was already moving away from the negative plate at light speed. Well, the field
would be chasing a moving target and could never reach the electron; therefore it could
not possibly apply any force to the electron.

Speed Differencing

I submit therefore that the real reason for a particle’s slowdown near light-speed has
nothing to do with an increase in mass, and everything to do with a decrease in force that
results from a difference between field speed and particle speed. Of course it is also
possible that an increase in mass could be responsible for the same result. But why invent
a complicated reason to explain a phenomenon when a more plausible explanation is
available?

Assuming I’m right here, how exactly should the force vary with a particle’s speed? We are
a looking for a function that decreases towards zero as v moves towards c. The LT does
this, or rather 1/LT does, but there are also other possibilities to choose from. In the case
of the wind tunnel, the force F on the marble is proportional to the square of the difference
between wind speed and marble speed. This is a function of fluid dynamics. I am going to
suggest that an electric field acts on an electron in much the same way, except that it
works according to the cube of the difference. Namely:

Why the cube and not the square? There’s a subtle difference and the reason will be
explained in a later chapter about magnetism.

This equation shows a proportional sign so it cannot be directly used as a multiplier. What
we want is a function that can be applied to a regular force equation. The function needs to
have a value of one at v=0 and a value of zero at v=c. This can by easily done by dividing
by c. I.e.:

For the sake of giving this a name I’ll call this the Electric Velocity Force Function (EVFF). If
applied to a force equation it could look like this:

Where F0 is the force at zero velocity, and F is the ‘relativistic’ force.

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Interactions between opposite charges

The above formula can be used when determining the interaction between ‘like’ charges;
i.e. both negative or both positive. Now let’s consider interactions between opposite
charges.

Opposite charges interact the other way around, in that their force will decrease as they
move faster together. To understand this, refer to the wind tunnel example. The fan on the
left is blowing the marble while the fan on the right is sucking. As the marble moves faster
away from the blowing fan, the force from that fan decreases. Likewise as the marble
moves faster toward the sucking fan, the force from that fan decreases. In our analogy,
the blowing fan is the plate with negative charge (same as the electron) and the sucking
fan is the positive plate (opposite of the electron).

So in the case with opposite charges, the EVFF becomes:

The sign in front of the velocity becomes positive, not because velocity has changed
direction, but because the charges are opposite.

A Velocity Dependant Coulomb’s Law

Now let’s create a variation of Coulomb’s Law that takes into account particle velocities.
Coulomb’s Law tells us the amount of electrical force that exists between two charged
particles a given distance apart. The equation for this law is:

Where F is the force experienced by both particles, k is Coulomb’s constant, q1 and q2 are
the charges of particles 1 and 2 respectively and r is the distance between them.

This formula is considered true for static charges. Next we’ll introduce what I’ll call the
‘Velocity Dependant Coulomb’s Law’ (VDCL) which allows for moving charges. Consider the
below diagram that shows moving charges:

The modified force equation for this situation becomes:

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Where F is the force experienced by particle 2, v1 and v2 represent the velocities of


particles 1 and 2 respectively and r is the distance between them. The term [q1] refers to
the sign of charge q1; i.e. for a positive charge like a proton [q1] = +1 and for a negative
charge like an electron [q1] = -1. Likewise [q2] is the sign of charge q2.

[Sidenote: To be precise, v1 is not the current velocity of particle 1 but the velocity particle
1 had when it generated the field that has now reached particle 2. This is a subtle
distinction because there is a brief delay between when particle 1 emits its field and when
that field reaches particle 2; and the velocity of particle 1 could change during that time.
This will be covered later in more detail.]

So why not just use the conventional LT instead of the EVFF? I discussed in an earlier
chapter that the LT is based on questionable assumptions about time dilation that, even if
true, shouldn’t apply to one-dimensional situations such as this. Of course it’s still possible
that the regular LT may be the correct function.

The above equation however does have some large benefits. If we assume it to be correct
then a number of physical phenomena can be neatly explained including magnetism and
static electricity as I will show in the following chapters.

Examples with Same charge

Below are some diagrams to better describe this. In each of these examples particle 1 is at
rest and particle 2’s velocity is given by v. I.e. v1 =0 and v2 = v.

First we have two positively charged particles at rest. Let’s say they are placed fixed
distance apart and each experience an opposing force of 1 Newton (see below).

Now we will repeat the above but this time they are moving away from each other with a
speed of c/2 (half light speed). When they are the same distance apart what will the force
be?

According to the EVFF,

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So they experience an opposing force of 0.125 Newton; a large decrease when compared
to the static situation.

Now to repeat the above but this time they are moving toward each other with a speed of
c/2 (half light speed). When they are the same distance apart what will the force be?

The EVFF describes a positive velocity as moving away. So the velocity here is -1/2 and
EVFF shows:

So they experience an opposing force of 3.375 Newton. Here the force has greatly
increased.

Examples with Opposite charge

Take two identical but opposite charges, initially static and the same distance apart as in
the above examples. They will each experience an attractive force of 1 Newton.

Now we will repeat the above but this time they are moving away from each other with a
speed of c/2. When they are the same distance apart what will the force be?

The equation is the same as for similar charges but the force direction is different.
According to the EVFF,

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So they experience an attractive force of 3.375 Newton; an increase when compared to the
static situation.

Now to repeat the above but this time they are moving toward each other with a speed of
c/2. When they are the same distance apart what will the force be?

Here both the velocity and the charge are negative and EVFF shows:

So they experience an attractive force of 0.125 Newton. Here the force has decreased and
this retards the rate of acceleration.

Conclusion

It is possible to explain the decrease in acceleration of an object near light-speed without


requiring a mass increase toward infinity as it approaches light-speed. One method is to
say that the force of an electric field on a charged particle is proportional to the difference
between field and object velocities. This is similar to the way fluid forces behave in
classical mechanics.

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Copyright © 2010 Bernard Burchell, all rights reserved.

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