Intelligent Design

Now I am curious.

Am I understanding this correctly?

2 bodies traveling at 2mph and crashing into a wall object will release less energy than if one of those bodies collides with a wall at 4 mph?
Yes, but not for any reason we discussed. Kinetic energy is
E = 1/2 mass * velocity^2
(^2 means squared) If you apply that formula to the two cases described, one body at 4 mph releases twice as much energy as two bodies at 2 mph.

What I was trying to get at was that 2 mph + 2 mph = 3.9999956 mph must be wrong as stated because if you cancel out the units from each side, you get
2+2=3.9999956, which is wrong. The only correct way of expressing it is with the formula for the relativistic composition law for velocities given in post 136 and 164.
 
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