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How do today's scientists use conservation of momentum?

Detemining Mass

Top Home - Find the Mass

Once you have the magnitude of all the momenta, you are ready to calculate the top quark mass!

If you are careful about your choice of units, it is possible to equate momentum and energy in a way that is similar to the way mass and energy are related. Specifically, it may be shown that the momentum you measure has the same numerical value as the energy or mass of the particle. In other words,

E (in GeV/c²) = p (in GeV/c) = m (in GeV/c²)

This shows that the total energy that came from the two top quarks that were formed is equal to the numerical sum of all the momenta discovered in the collision.

p_total = 2m_t

Advanced background on energy, mass and momentum calculations

Program Contact: Marge Bardeen - mbardeen@fnal.gov
Web Maintainer: ed-webmaster@fnal.gov
Last Update: February 21, 1999
http://www-ed.fnal.gov/samplers/hsphys/activities/student/mass.shtml