Masseforøgelse

Masseforøgelse, often translated as mass increase or relativistic mass, is a concept in physics that describes the increase in an object's mass as its speed approaches the speed of light. This idea arises from Albert Einstein's theory of special relativity. In classical mechanics, mass is considered an invariant property of an object, meaning it does not change regardless of its motion. However, special relativity postulates that the speed of light in a vacuum is constant for all observers, regardless of their own motion.

To maintain this constancy of the speed of light, other properties of objects in motion must change. One of these properties is mass. As an object's velocity increases, its relativistic mass also increases, becoming infinitely large as it approaches the speed of light. This means that an infinite amount of energy would be required to accelerate an object with mass to the speed of light, making it impossible.

The concept of relativistic mass is sometimes used to explain why objects with mass cannot reach the speed of light. However, modern physics generally prefers to describe the effects of motion on mass using the concept of momentum and energy, where mass is treated as a constant property (rest mass). The increase in energy and momentum with velocity is what accounts for the observed phenomena, rather than a changing mass. Therefore, while historically significant, the term masseforøgelse is less commonly used in contemporary physics discussions.