Relativistic dynamics

Abstract

In the early twentieth century, physicists begin to note the discrepancies between Newton’s classical mechanics and Maxwell’s theory of electromagnetism. The failure of the Michelson-Morley experiment, attempting to detect absolute motion of the earth through an “aether”, is the most often cited example of these contradictions. Abraham, Lorentz, and Poincare all submitted various formulas attempting to describe the properties of matter with velocities approaching the speed of light. In 1901, Kaufmann determined an approximate value for the mass of an electron. Most of these new discoveries were unexplained until 1905, when Albert Einstein developed his theory of special relativity. Einstein’s theory predicted non-classical relations between momentum, energy, and velocity. His greatest breakthrough was to give velocity an upper bound of c, the speed of light. Our experiment is an attempt to show the failures of classical mechanics for particles at high velocities and to determine a value for the charge of an electron divided by mass, e/m.