Here is the math I attempted. This is a first attempt at calculating SR so it's a bit daunting and I'm not sure if I'm handling the variables correctly...
A train is traveling past an observer on a platform at velocity (v, equal to 0.1c). On the train a pulse of light is fired from a laser, in...
Ok, I did try it, and it worked. Thank you for the guidance. Admittedly, I think my approach was unconventional but the results fit perfectly. Both observers see the same number of waves from emission to target.
Imagine there is an experiment setup on a train. A laser, with a specific wavelength of light, is aimed at a target. The target is at a distance from the laser of some multiple of the wavelength. Let's say 10cm for the target distance, and the light's wavelength is 1cm, so when a pulse of...
"Momentum increases with speed" So the moving observer sees a momentum increase in the light beam overall compared to the at rest observer? Of course the box's relativistic mass will increase, but I'm more interested in the light beam alone. That is an interesting effect I didn't know about if...
Something caught my attention here; the whole box does contract length-wise when moving. Does that mean that the light's wavelength also contracts over all? Does this mean that the light has more momentum as measured by the moving observer? I'm wondering if this is similar to the idea that...
Ok, thank you, this is right where I was having trouble. Because I watch the man in the box see the light move the same speed in both directions, I believe the same amount of time passes for him as the light travels the length of the box in both directions. But when I watch the light bounce...
A place where I'm hung up is how the light seems to move at different velocities relative to the box as seen by a moving observer. If there is a small man inside the box, he just sees the light bounce back and fourth at the same speed, but if I zip past the box looking at it out of my side...
Yes, this is difficult for me. It's extremely theoretical and not practical, so I'm prepared for it to be unusable. The basic thrust behind the question is to frame everything in terms described by Special Relativity. So, I'm really asking about light, traveling as an EM wave, with a precise...
Imagine a special box made of inward facing mirrors. These mirrors have zero mass and are perfectly reflective. A single photon is inside the box bouncing from side to side between the two mirrors of the sides of the box. The photon is perfectly preserved in this state, and loses no energy...
This is very helpful thank you. So, If I am on the earth and I watch a comet move around the earth in an arc, then does GR say that the momentum of the object, relative to me and the earth, changed and that it was accelerated? I'm imagining the object is accelerated along a geodesic, but I'm...
If one stands on a large planetary body, like the moon, and throws a large object, like a rock straight up, the object will leave with some velocity, slow down to a stop, and then come back down with the same velocity once it returns to its origin. In Newtonian mechanics, the understanding is...
Imagine an empty void of intergalactic space. In this space there is a cloud of diffuse gas, mostly hydrogen and helium. The gas is non-rotating and very cold just above absolute zero. There is nothing else around this cloud, and so it has a clear center of gravity, and no other objects...
In the Lamda-CDM model of cosmology, dark-energy is explained by a Lamda like curvature of space-time. In this description, space-time is curved in such a way as to cause a gentle outward repulsive force on the large scale, expanding all of the universe over time. This is one cause of the...
This question originated under a separate thread (see below) in an attempt to better understand what is happening with the quantum eraser experiment. Specifically, it seems that the BBO crystal which splits the photon beam after the double slit is critical in how the experiment is setup...