- #1
Tiggy B
- 5
- 0
Homework Statement
So I'm trying to find the final velocity of a proton that is being accelerated by a particle accelerator, just before it collides with a particle. All I have is its kinetic energy just before collision: 4.7066×10^(-13) J.
I thought I should use KE = 1/2 mv^2 but then realized it should be traveling near the speed of light, so I used Einstein's equation for special relativity to find the relative mass
I.e. I subbed in "m (rest)/sqrt(1-(v^2/c^2))" for mass
However, when I solved for 'v' (which involved lots of algebra and logs), I got 1.713×10^31 m/s
THAT'S WAY TOO FAST!
I have checked my working a few times so I suspect there is something intrinsically wrong- should I not use relativistic mass?
Homework Equations
KE = 1/2 mv^2
m (relative) = m (rest)/sqrt(1-(v^2/c^2))
The Attempt at a Solution
Attempt is attached as a pdf- to preserve formatting
Thanks for any thoughts or help! :)