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The idea that force causes acceleration doesn’t seem strange. This and other ideas of Newtonian mechanics are consistent with our everyday experience. But the ideas of relativity do seem odd and more difficult to grasp. Discuss.
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The theory of relativity is a fundamental theory in physics that describes the motion of objects at high speeds close to the speed of light in a vacuum. Show more…
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The idea that force causes acceleration doesn't seem strange. This and other ideas of Newtonian mechanics are consistent with our everyday experience. But. the ideas of relativity do seem odd and more difficult to grasp. Why is this?
In classical mechanics Newton's law can be written in the more familiar form $\mathbf{F}=m \mathbf{a} .$ The relativistic equation, $\mathbf{F}=d \mathbf{p} / d t,$ cannot be so simply expressed. Show, rather that $$\mathbf{F}=\frac{m}{\sqrt{1-u^{2} / c^{2}}}\left[\mathbf{a}+\frac{\mathbf{u}(\mathbf{u} \cdot \mathbf{a})}{c^{2}-u^{2}}\right]$$ where $\mathbf{a} \equiv d \mathbf{u} / d t$ is the ordinary acceleration.
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