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
Four-velocity are multiplied by the four-velocity, one then gets new physical four-vectors that have 4 independent components. For example: Effectively, the formula_27 factor combines with the Lorentz scalar term to make the 4th independent component Using the differential of the four-position, the magnitude of the four-velocity can be obtained: in short, the magnitude of the four-velocity for any object is always a fixed constant: The norm is also: so that: which reduces to the definition the Lorentz factor. Four-velocity In physics, in particular in special relativity and general relativity, a four-velocity is a four-vector in four-dimensional spacetime that represents the relativistic