Quote:
Originally Posted by MrB
I don't even pretend to understand this stuff, but..
How does one 'observe' a ships weight?
And how do you weigh something in weightlessness anyway?
Do you mean the mass would be increased to 29.2 tonnes?
I thought mass was mass and thats that, kinda like light speed is lightspeed...
Urrrgh.... think I'll leave this stuff to those that have bigger brains than I!
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It is not weight but mass...
Mass increases with relative speed because the kinetic energy of moving ship has mass also (E=mc^2)
Mass can be measured.. for example, mass of the charged particles is measured in the magnetic field of known strength, where particle has curved trajectory instead of straight one. The radius of the trajectory is depending on charge, magnetic field strength and particle speed and mass.
To measure the mass of the space ship, travelling at nearly the speed of light is a bit more difficult obviously, but the same principle applies :-)