Diagrammatic Approach for Investigating Two Dimensional Elastic Collisions in Momentum Space II: Special Relativity

Abstract

The diagrammatic approach to the collision problems in Newtonian mechanics is useful. We show in this article that the same technique can be applied to the case of the special relativity. The two circles play an important role in Newtonian mechanics, while in the special relativity, we need one circle and one ellipse. The circle shows the collision in the center-of-mass system. And the ellipse shows the collision in the laboratory system. These two figures give all information on two dimensional elastic collisions in the special relativity.