Proper velocity Proper velocity In relativity, proper velocity, also known as celerity, is an alternative to velocity for measuring motion. Whereas velocity relative to an observer is distance per unit time where both distance and time are measured by the observer, proper velocity relative to an observer divides observer-measured distance by the time elapsed on the clocks of the traveling object. Proper velocity equals velocity at low speeds. Proper velocity at high speeds, moreover, retains many of the properties that velocity loses in relativity compared with Newtonian theory. For example, proper velocity equals momentum per unit mass at any speed, and therefore
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