Working mass Working mass Working mass, also referred to as reaction mass, is a mass against which a system operates in order to produce acceleration. In the case of a rocket, for example, the reaction mass is the fuel shot backwards to provide propulsion. All acceleration requires an exchange of momentum, which can be thought of as the "unit of movement". Momentum is related to mass and velocity, as given by the formula "P = mv," where "P" is the momentum, "m" the mass, and "v" the velocity. The velocity of a body is easily changeable, but in most cases the mass
Group velocity amplitudes diminish as they approach the leading edge. The longer waves travel more slowly, and their amplitudes diminish as they emerge from the trailing boundary of the group. The group velocity is defined by the equation: where is the wave's angular frequency (usually expressed in radians per second), and is the angular wavenumber (usually expressed in radians per meter). The phase velocity is: . The function , which gives as a function of , is known as the dispersion relation. One derivation of the formula for group velocity is as follows. Consider a wave packet as a function of position