Generalized relativistic velocity addition in two-dimensional space

Iyer, Chandru and Prabhu, G. M. (2007) Generalized relativistic velocity addition in two-dimensional space. Technical Report 06-37, Computer Science, Iowa State University.

Abstract

The well known velocity addition formula of special relativity, (u + v)/(1 + (uv/c2)), is used to combine velocities along the same line of motion. Combining two velocities in different directions is a matter of interest and we derive a formula for it in this paper. The formula is verified for special cases and shown to be consistent with known results. We also show that the upper limit for speed is maintained by our formula. The derivation is based on a conventional Lorentz transformation followed by a spatial rotation and then followed by another conventional Lorentz transformation.