A sum of particle four-momenta at specified events is a four-vector, but sums recomputed at simultaneous events in different inertial frames need not correspond to that same four-vector. For opposite equal electric charges initially at rest a distance apart, a longitudinal electric field switched on simultaneously in the laboratory produces zero total laboratory three-momentum. In a frame moving at , the switch-on events are separated by ; during that interval only one force acts. The late equal-time total three-momentum is , while the Lorentz transformation of an equal-laboratory-time sum varies as the laboratory pair's energy grows. Closed-system four-momentum conservation requires including the field and external apparatus.

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