Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2011/ia/paper-4/12b/a/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2011 ia Paper 4 12B a Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The relativistic energy of a particle of rest mass is , where the Lorentz factor is . Using the binomial series at small givesThe second term is the familiar Newtonian kinetic energy. The first is the rest energy, which remains when . Thus the new physical idea is mass-energy equivalence: a body's mass represents energy even at rest. The total energy is not merely energy due to motion.
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