Chemistry 2720 Fall 1999 Quiz 8

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In relativistic dynamics, the kinetic energy is defined as the difference between the total energy and the rest energy . An electron is given a kinetic energy of 1MeV. Calculate the momentum of an electron with this energy using the relativistic energy equation. The effective mass m of a particle with total energy E is calculated from . Calculate m for a 1MeV electron. The usual definition of momentum can then be used to calculate the speed of the electron using the effective mass instead of the rest mass.

For comparison, use the usual equations of classical mechanics to calculate the speed. Do the two theories give similar results?

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