15.23: Some Mathematical Results
- Page ID
- 8476
Before proceeding with the next section, I just want to establish few mathematical results, so that we do not get bogged down in heavy algebra later on when we should be concentrating on understanding physics.
First, if
\[ \gamma=\left(1-\frac{u^{2}}{c^{2}}\right), \label{15.23.1} \]
Then, by trivial differentiation,
\[ \frac{d\gamma}{du}=\frac{\gamma^{3}u}{c^{2}}. \label{15.23.2} \]
\[ \dot{\gamma}=\frac{\gamma^{3}u\dot{u}}{c^{2}}. \label{15.23.3} \]
From this, we quickly find that
\[ \frac{\gamma u\dot{u}}{\dot{\gamma}}=c^{2}-u^{2}. \label{15.23.4} \]
Now for a small result concerning a scalar (dot) product.
Let A be a vector such that A * A = \( A^{2}\).
Then
\( \frac{d}{dt}(A^{2})=2A\dot{A}\) and \( \frac{d}{dt}(\bf{A\cdot A})=2A\cdot\dot{A}\)
\[ A\cdot\dot{A}=A\dot{A} \label{15.23.6} \]
We can now safely proceed to the next section.