Proper velocity addition formula: where formula_3 is the beta factor given by formula_4. or in terms of logarithms: Proper velocity is useful for comparing the speed of objects with momentum per unit rest mass ("w") greater than lightspeed "c". The coordinate speed of such objects is generally near lightspeed, whereas proper velocity tells us how rapidly they are covering ground on "traveling-object clocks". This is important for example if, like some cosmic ray particles, the traveling objects have a finite lifetime. Proper velocity also clues us in to the object's momentum, which has no upper bound. For example, a 45 GeV electron
Escape velocity to escape the gravitational influence, and that there will be no future sources of additional velocity (e.g., thrust), which would reduce the required instantaneous velocity. For a spherically symmetric, massive body such as a star, or planet, the escape velocity for that body, at a given distance, is calculated by the formula where "G" is the universal gravitational constant (), "M" the mass of the body to be escaped from, and "r" the distance from the center of mass of the body to the object. The relationship is independent of the mass of the object escaping the massive body. Conversely,