Mass (say) 1 kilogram. Then we can measure the mass of any other object in the universe by colliding it with the reference object and measuring the accelerations. Additionally, mass relates a body's momentum p to its linear velocity v: and the body's kinetic energy "K" to its velocity: The primary difficulty with Mach's definition of mass is that it fails to take into account the potential energy (or binding energy) needed to bring two masses sufficiently close to one another to perform the measurement of mass. This is most vividly demonstrated by comparing the mass of the proton in the
Binary mass function the true orbital velocity is low (implying low mass objects) and the inclination high (the orbit is seen edge-on), or that the true velocity is high (implying high mass objects) but the inclination low (the orbit is seen face-on). The peak radial velocity formula_1 is the semi-amplitude of the radial velocity curve, as shown in the figure. The orbital period formula_2 is found from the periodicity in the radial velocity curve. These are the two observable quantities needed to calculate the binary mass function. The observed object of which the radial velocity can be measured is taken to be object