Muzzle velocity design. In a side by side comparison with the .50 BMG, the titanium round "of any caliber" released almost 28 times the energy of the .50 BMG, with only a 27% mean loss in momentum. Energy, in most cases, is what is lethal to the target, not momentum. In conventional guns, muzzle velocity is determined by the quantity of the propellant (burn speed, expansion), the mass of the projectile, and the length of the barrel. A slower-burning propellant needs a longer barrel to burn completely, but can, on the other hand, use a heavier projectile. A faster-burning propellant may accelerate
Mass–energy equivalence the velocity is small, the relativistic mass and the rest mass are almost exactly the same. Also Einstein (following Hendrik Lorentz and Max Abraham) used velocity- and direction-dependent mass concepts () in his 1905 electrodynamics paper and in another paper in 1906. However, in his first paper on (1905), he treated as what would now be called the "rest mass". Some claim that (in later years) he did not like the idea of "relativistic mass". When modern physicists say "mass", they are usually talking about rest mass, since if they meant "relativistic mass", they would just say "energy". Considerable debate