Variable-mass system the momentum of the system varies for Therefore, by Newton's second law Noting that u - v is the velocity of d"m" relative to "m", symbolized as v, this final equation can be arranged as In a system where mass is being ejected or ablated from a main body, the derivation is slightly different. At time "t", let a mass "m" travel at a velocity v, meaning the initial momentum of the system is Since the main body will be losing mass, d"m" will be negative, meaning that at a time "t" + d"t" the momentum of the system becomes
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