Velocity quantity, momentum, is a vector and defined by In special relativity, the dimensionless Lorentz factor appears frequently, and is given by where γ is the Lorentz factor and "c" is the speed of light. Escape velocity is the minimum speed a ballistic object needs to escape from a massive body such as Earth. It represents the kinetic energy that, when added to the object's gravitational potential energy, (which is always negative) is equal to zero. The general formula for the escape velocity of an object at a distance "r" from the center of a planet with mass "M" is where
Binary mass function a single-lined spectroscopic binary if the radial motion of only one of the two binary components can be measured. In this case, a lower limit on the mass of the "other" (unseen) component can be determined. The true mass and true orbital velocity cannot be determined from the radial velocity because the orbital inclination is generally unknown. (The inclination is the orientation of the orbit from the point of view of the observer, and relates true and radial velocity.) This causes a degeneracy between mass and inclination. For example, if the measured radial velocity is low, this can mean that