called
'the gamma factor' occurs frequently in special relativity eg
and indicates how good a fit Newtonian mechanics fits observations.
Ifis
close to 1 because
the
Newtonian mechanics fits observations well, with the goodness of fit
improving as
decreases.
The following table shows howdiverges
from 1 as
increases.
Divergence becomes noticeable as
increases
above 0.2.
|
|
|
|
0.001 |
1.0000005 |
|
0.01 |
1.00005 |
|
0.1 |
1.005 |
|
0.2 |
1.021 |
|
0.3 |
1.48 |
|
0.4 |
1.091 |
|
0.5 |
1.155 |
|
0.9 |
2.29 |
|
0.99 |
11.26 |
|
0.999 |
22.37 |
Depending on the
accuracy required smaller values ofmay
be acceptable, but values ofabove
0.2 are generally unacceptable.
Speeds at which Newtonian mechanics is a good approximation are cal non relativistic speeds and speeds at which Newtonian mechanics is not a good approximation are called relativistic speeds.