General Derivation of Mass-Energy Relation without Electrodynamics or Einstein’s Postulates

Abstract

The mass-energy equation is derived in general from Newton’s equation of motion without use of electrodynamics, or Einstein’s Postulates which were presented in his superb 1905 paper on Special Relativity (SR). This was previously not thought to be possible. This novel derivation of an accelerated body of rest mass m0 is compared with the traditional SR inertial derivation. A discussion is given of pre-1905, electrostatic and electrodynamic derivations of the mass-energy relation yielding , as well as more recent ones. A concise pre-relativity history of the mass-energy relation is traced back to Newton in 1717.