Re: A question on inelastic relativistic collisions
From: "JACK L. URETSKY (C)1998; HEP DIVISION, ARGONNE NATIONAL LAB ARGONNE, IL 60439" <JLU@HEP.ANL.GOV>
Date: Fri, 19 Feb 1999 16:28:33 -0600
Hi Herb-
You write:
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I thought that temperature was a measure of the Internal Energy of a body.
The Internal Energy of a body is measured in the rest frame of the Center
of Mass of that body and therefore the Temperature of a body is measured in
that reference frame.
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I think you mean that "Internal Energy of a body is <defined>
in the rest frame..."
Consider a black body. One can, and does, measure its temperature
by determining the frequency of the peak of the black body spectrum. One
can make this measurement in any frame. The rest frame temperature is then
determined by transforming the measurement back to the rest frame.
Thus, the temperature of the visible horizon is 3 deg K in our frame but
hotter than Hades in the rest frame.
Regards,
Jack
"I scored the next great triumph for science myself,
to wit, how the milk gets into the cow. Both of us
had marveled over that mystery a long time. We had
followed the cows around for years - that is, in the
daytime - but had never caught them drinking fluid of
that color."
Mark Twain, Extract from Eve's
Autobiography