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Relativistic rocket

Relativistic rocket refers to any spacecraft that travels at a velocity close enough to light speed for relativistic effects to become significant. The meaning of 'significant' is a matter of context, but often a threshold velocity of 30% to 50% of the speed of light (0.3c to 0.5c) is used. At 30% of c, the difference between relativistic mass and rest mass is only about 5%, while at 50% it is 15%, (at 0.75c the difference is over 50%) so that above this range of speeds special relativity is required to accurately describe motion, whereas below this range sufficient accuracy is usually provided by Newtonian physics and the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation. d m f u e l   c 2 = d m e   c 2 1 − v e 2 c 2 {displaystyle dm_{fuel} c^{2}={frac {dm_{e} c^{2}}{sqrt {1-{frac {v_{e}^{2}}{c^{2}}}}}}}     (I)Due to the definition of η {displaystyle eta } , the following equation holds: d m e = ( 1 − η )   d m f u e l {displaystyle dm_{e}=(1-eta ) dm_{fuel}}     (II) v e = c   2 η − η 2 {displaystyle v_{e}=c {sqrt {2eta -eta ^{2}}}}     (III) Relativistic rocket refers to any spacecraft that travels at a velocity close enough to light speed for relativistic effects to become significant. The meaning of 'significant' is a matter of context, but often a threshold velocity of 30% to 50% of the speed of light (0.3c to 0.5c) is used. At 30% of c, the difference between relativistic mass and rest mass is only about 5%, while at 50% it is 15%, (at 0.75c the difference is over 50%) so that above this range of speeds special relativity is required to accurately describe motion, whereas below this range sufficient accuracy is usually provided by Newtonian physics and the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation.

[ "Special relativity", "Acceleration", "Rocket", "constant" ]
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