An exciting property of co-moving objects is that they have minimum mutual kinetic energy - approaching but not quite zero.
Perhaps this gives us the opportunity to define co-moving in a more concise way and to study the concept in a more meaningful way
Ed Gerck
No, I stand by the statement. I have however edited it to insert the inadvertently missed word 'kinetic'.
Mathematically, there can be no mutual kinetic energy as 1/2mv2 calculates to 0 when mutual movement is zero, regardless of mass.
These objects may have massive energy in relation to the rest of the universe but between them they register null, if we ignore the tiny effects of mutual gravity.
While this may be an obvious derivation, it offers significant interest to any engineer in understanding how and why, when objects do co-align, they apparently lose kinetic energy and increase mutual inertia. What is the mechanism for converting the two? How can we use this to advantage?
Think of boarding a train as against standing in front of one moving towards you at speed. If you get on the train your kinetic energy still exists relative to the ground you both travel over. Inside of a 'train-man' system your kinetic energy measures zero relative to the vehicle. You add to the mass and hence inertia of the system as a whole. Stand in front of that same train and the relative energy measurements are massive and potentially devastating.
There is no fantasy or misunderstanding on my part.
Ed Gerck
Such a shame you felt the need to delete the question after my restatement.
I do appreciate that it may not have been the direction you wanted the discussion to go, but research and commentary is like that.
Ian
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