- #1
Philip Wood
Gold Member
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When Bell says that the thread in put under "intolerable stress" and breaks, what happens then? Suppose that instead of the thread there is a light rod, which breaks at the point of attachment to the back spacecraft , so it is left sticking out backwards from the front spacecraft ..
In the frame in which the spacecraft are at rest before they start to accelerate, would the rod become more and more contracted, while the distance between the spacecraft remains the same (fixed by hypothesis: [itex] x_A - x_B = (\frac{1}{2} at^2 + X) - \frac{1}{2} at^2 \ \text {with}\ X\ \text{being a constant} [/itex]), so a gap between the back end of the rod and the back spacecraft opens up and becomes wider and wider?
I'm not trying to catch anyone out; I just want to know if this is correct.
In the frame in which the spacecraft are at rest before they start to accelerate, would the rod become more and more contracted, while the distance between the spacecraft remains the same (fixed by hypothesis: [itex] x_A - x_B = (\frac{1}{2} at^2 + X) - \frac{1}{2} at^2 \ \text {with}\ X\ \text{being a constant} [/itex]), so a gap between the back end of the rod and the back spacecraft opens up and becomes wider and wider?
I'm not trying to catch anyone out; I just want to know if this is correct.