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Q:
if we have two particles traveling with speed near the light speed and both of them don't know about this and both of them calculate speed of light as it is for others(c) is this possible that one of them give enough energy to another one to reach the speed of light or more?! because none of them knows how much speed they have and for them they are in constant state .
- Amir (age 19)
arak,iran
A:
Nope. The relativistic velocity addition formula gives V= (v-u)/(1+uv/c
2) where u and v are here the two velocities in one frame and V is the velocity of one of the things in the frame of the other. Even if v and u are opposite and near to c in magnitude, V still comes out less than c. E.g if u and v are each 0.9c, opposite, V = (1.8/1.81)c.
However, it's possible that I misunderstood your question. If so, write back.
Mike W.
(published on 12/21/2010)
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