A teoria da relatividade restritaé os livros didáticos doénsino médio: Discordâncas sobre oçonceito de massa

Abstract

The concepts of relativistic mass and rest mass in the context of the special relativity theory (SRT) arise great discussion and have already motivated the publishing of several scientific papers which indicate the necessity of clarifying the differences between both terms. Although some representations about the relationship mass-energy are considered inappropriate, they are the most common in textbooks for high-school students. This is in disagreement with the trend of publishing textbooks intended for university courses. We then search for arguments to strengthen the discussion about these representations, and we analyze 14 textbooks accepted by the Physics PNLD 2015 that present the special relativity theory (SRT) and the relativistic concept of mass.