Proper velocity the traveling object. It equals the object's momentum p divided by its rest mass "m", and is made up of the space-like components of the object's four-vector velocity. William Shurcliff's monograph mentioned its early use in the Sears and Brehme text. Fraundorf has explored its pedagogical value while Ungar, Baylis and Hestenes have examined its relevance from group theory and geometric algebra perspectives. Proper velocity is sometimes referred to as celerity. Unlike the more familiar coordinate velocity v, proper velocity is synchrony-free (does not require synchronized clocks) and is useful for describing both super-relativistic and sub-relativistic motion. Like coordinate velocity
Variable-mass system on a body (F = 0) the variable-mass system motion equation reduces to If the velocity of the ejected propellant, v, is assumed have the opposite direction as the rocket's acceleration, dv/d"t", the scalar equivalent of this equation can be written as from which d"t" can be canceled out to give Integration by separation of variables gives By rearranging and letting Δ"v" = "v" - "v", one arrives at the standard form of the ideal rocket equation: where "m" is the initial total mass, including propellant, "m" is the final total mass, "v" is the effective exhaust velocity (often denoted