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So, recently I learned the basics of Special Relativity, and I found out that the mass of a body increases with the increase in its velocity as given by the Relativistic Mass equation:
$m=\frac{m_0}{\sqrt{1-\frac{v^2}{c^2}}}$
So I wanted to find $\frac{dm}{dt}$ for such cases.
Here's my method:
$F=\frac{dp}{dt}$
Also,
$F=m\frac{dv}{dt}\gamma$
where $\gamma = \frac{1}{\sqrt{1-\frac{v^2}{c^2}}}$
$p=mv\gamma$
Substituting value of $p$ in $F$, we get:
$F=\frac{d(mv\gamma)}{dt}$
Breaking the differentiation and equating it with $F=m\frac{dv}{dt}\gamma$, we get:
$\frac{dm}{dt}\gamma=-\frac{d\gamma}{dt}m$
After finding $\frac{d\gamma}{dt}$, and substituting,we get:
$\frac{dm}{dt}=\frac{mv\gamma}{c^2}=\frac{p}{c^2}$
Is it correct?

Qmechanic
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Deep
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  • Hi @Deep and welcome to PSE. Why not simply differentiate the first expression wrt t? – schris38 Nov 18 '23 at 08:17
  • The quantity you're computing already has two perfectly good names. They are energy over c^2 and momentum over v. The third name of "relativistic mass" is not well justified and discouraged on this site: https://profmattstrassler.com/articles-and-posts/particle-physics-basics/mass-energy-matter-etc/more-on-mass/the-two-definitions-of-mass-and-why-i-use-only-one/ – Connor Behan Nov 18 '23 at 08:30
  • Also see https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/133376/123208 – PM 2Ring Nov 18 '23 at 08:37

1 Answers1

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Your assumption that $F = m \frac{dv}{dt}\gamma$ is not correct. You should instead have $$F = \frac{d}{dt} (\gamma m_0v) = v\frac{dm}{dt} + m\frac{d}{dt}(v)$$ where note $m = \gamma m_0$.

However, to find $\frac{dm}{dt}$ I would rather differentiate the expression $$ m=\frac{m_0}{\sqrt{1-\frac{v^2}{c^2}}} $$ giving $$ \frac{dm}{dt} = m_0\frac{d}{dt} \frac{1}{\sqrt{1-\frac{v^2}{c^2}}} $$ Let me know if you need me to perform the last differentiation.

S.G
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  • So, the original $\frac{dm}{dt}$ will be $m_0\frac{v}{c^2}\gamma^3$. Thanks for clearing it out. – Deep Nov 19 '23 at 06:31