Variable-mass system events. The following derivation is for a body that is gaining mass (accretion). A body of time-varying mass "m" moves at a velocity v at an initial time "t". In the same instant, a particle of mass dm moves with velocity u. The initial momentum can be written as Now at a time "t" + d"t", let both the main body and the particle accrete into a body of velocity v + dv. Thus the new momentum of the system can be written as Since d"m"dv is the product of two small values, it can be ignored, meaning during d"t"
Velocity-addition formula v \times(\mathbf v \times \mathbf u')\right],\end{align}</math> where the last expression is by the standard vector analysis formula . The first expression extends to any number of spatial dimensions, but the cross product is defined in three dimensions only. The objects with having velocity relative to and having velocity relative to can be anything. In particular, they can be three frames, or they could be the laboratory, a decaying particle and one of the decay products of the decaying particle. The relativistic addition of 3-velocities is non-linear for any real numbers and , although it is true that Also, due to