Thanx..i want to actually try to describe the circular motion with time as variable. X co-ordinate of the motion would be U*t, while Y co-ordinate would be (-a*t^2/2). For a circle, since X^2+Y^2= R^2, how do I proceed to describe the circular motion, such that by only changing the value of t in...
I was thinking about how planets revolve around sun. Although they subscribe a elliptical motion, my question is very similar.
A heavy body exerts a force on a point mass, say with an acceleration of "a". If we take the direction of this acceleration to be X, what is the linear uniform velocity...
i would actually like to jump in with a question on same line..for 2 frames moving with uniform relative velocity to each other,can there actually be an event which is simultaneous to both frames?..since rate of time flow will differ for each frame its hard to perceive exactly how simultaneity...
A quick question..a traveller will observe length of his journey contracted if he is traveling in a straight line..thus when light travels, doesn't the distance it travels get contracted?..and since light itself travels at c, ideally the contraction factor should be zero, so light should reach...
@ Harrilyn & Chestermiller
Thnx for ur answers. Yes I got my query solved. However it leads me to some more questions, but i guess that's the way it is in RT..I'll be back with more stupid q's :)
Thnx for the answer. @yuiop, u say say that when 2 inertial frames are in relative motion, there is no exact way of knowing which frame is ageing more or less slowly. As Harrylin has stated both the frames should be measured equally. Thus its contradicting.
Another question is what makes...
This could be very basic question, nevertheless its troubling me
In Feynman's lectures, he says that though motion is relative, there is an absolute motion between 2 frames. A high velocity mu-meson when moved linearly or circularly would live just as longer than stationary one. Or a twin in a...
Yes totally correct. Guess I was confused about what I was exactly confused about. The thing that keeps nagging me is how M&M experiment is described in textbooks. I mean if the ether wind can arise anyhow, then isn't it naive to assume that the light ray traveling in the direction of motion...
Michelson Morley experiment was sought to find out Earth's motion through ether, which allegedly produced ether wind. Thus the time required for two rays of light would be different, thereby producing interference pattern. Since Earth revolves arouns sun, and sun revolves around something else...
@ alexroma
Thank you extremely for saving me a lot of trouble. I get the answer intuitively though. Can someone explain what the observer who's been hit will actually see. The journey of missile will be compressed for him, i.e he will watch the 4 secs journey in 2 secs, since the missile is...
Suppose there are two observers separated by distance of 2 light minutes. They have 2 identical clocks, which are synchronized. Suppose one of the observer shoots a missile at 3 PM. The other observer, who is able to see him, will observe that the missile has been shot at 3.02 PM. According to...
@ phinds
yes agreed. But isn't time dilation a direct consequence of constant speed of light?. If light behaved the same way as a ball, then the speed of light in a moving frame would be different for different frames. If my frame of reference was at rest and if it started moving(consider i...
Length contraction happens only in direction of motion. Never perpendicular to the motion.
My questions are
1) Why is it so?. For an observer in the same frame, it would mean a meter scale to give 2 different results. If by some means he is able to calculate the difference won't he be able to...
Reading all of the above posts has made me revisit SR once again. I think what is confusing are the illustrations which are normally given, e.g the clock involving 2 mirrors. If you see, there the concept of time being relative comes due to the fact that the stationary observer observes the...
I am a beginner in this field. I have read Special theory of relativity by Einstein, but the one written for beginners, not the technical. I have also read couple of undergraduate books which had STR. From my understanding, STR is a theory about transformation from one frame to another, both...