Rest Mass
Key Stage 5
Meaning
The rest mass of a particle is total mass of the particle when it is stationary relative to the observer.
About Rest Mass
- The rest mass is measured in kilograms (kg).
- The mass of subatomic particles depends up their relative motion. This becomes significant at speeds approaching the speed of light.
- The rest mass of a particle is equivalent to its total energy (when stationary relative to an observer) divided by the speed of light squared.
- The rest mass for a given subatomic particle is the same from all reference frames.
- The rest mass for a given particle is identical to the rest mass of its antimatter counterpart.
Equations
The rest mass is related to the rest energy by the mass-energy equivalence shown in the following equation
\(m = \frac{E}{c^2}\)
Where
\(m =\) The rest mass of a particle.
\(E =\) The rest energy of a particle.
\(c =\) The speed of light (\(3.00\times10^{8}ms^{-1}\) in a vacuum).
Examples
Particle | Rest Mass / kg | Unified Atomic Mass Units | Rest Energy / MeV |
Proton | \(1.67\times10^{-27}\) | \(1.01\) | \(938\) |
Neutron | \(1.67\times10^{-27}\) | \(1.00\) | \(939\) |
Electron | \(9.11\times10^{-31}\) | \(5.49\times10^{-4}\) | \(5.11\) |
Muon | \(1.88\times10^{-28}\) | \(0.1134\) | \(106\) |
π-meson π± | \(2.49\times10^{-28}\) | \(0.1500\) | \(140\) |
π-meson π0 | \(2.41\times10^{-28}\) | \(0.1449\) | \(135\) |
[[K-meson] K± | \(8.80\times10^{-28}\) | \(0.5300\) | \(494\) |
K-meson K0 | \(8.87\times10^{-28}\) | \(0.5442\) | \(498\) |
Photon | \(0\) | \(0\) | \(0\) |
Neutrino | \(0\) | \(0\) | \(0\) |