On the relativistic conveyor belt

Processes involving a moving conveyor belt have been considered interesting [1], generating profuse literature [2], and not without controversy [3]. This dispute may be, in part, due to the separation between mechanics and thermodynamics subjects in classical physics [4]. And both disciplines, in general, ignore the atomic structure of matter and that physical systems are made up of, among others, electric charges (protons and electrons), interchanging electromagnetic radiation (photons) with its environment [5]. In conveyor belt processes, there are sudden variations in the speed of finite size bodies involved (inherently inelastic processes [6], pp.167-168), evolving with mechanical energy dissipation, yielding thermal effects (which, with few exceptions [7], have not been explicitly considered when analysing these processes). So, these processes’ complete description requires the mechanics and thermodynamics laws application [8].