Special relativity Definition and 1000 Threads

Homework Statement So I'm trying to find the final velocity of a proton that is being accelerated by a particle accelerator, just before it collides with a particle. All I have is its kinetic energy just before collision: 4.7066×10^(-13) J. I thought I should use KE = 1/2 mv^2 but then...

Homework Statement The instantaneous force F acting on a particle, as measured in frame S, is Use the formula for the linear momentum () in and the definition of the acceleration a to show that The Attempt at a Solution The professor said that this required use of programs such...

when studying momentum 4 vectors,i encountered the CT momentum which is MC.can some explain where has this come from?

Claim: The acceleration (both direction and magnitude) for any object is the same in any inertial reference frame. Is this claim true? I think it is, but someone mentioned to me that time may be an issue as it's not agreed upon in all inertial reference frames. I'd appreciate any references...

Equivalence principle says that gravitational forces are equivalent physically to inertial forces. Can someone explain what is meant by that and how was it concluded?

Homework Statement Planets A and B are 10 light years apart in the reference frame of planet A. A deep-space probe is launched from A, and 5 years later (in reference frame A) a similar probe is launched from B. Does a reference frame exist in which these two events (a) are simultaneous and (b)...

Where does the requirement come from that special relativity applies only locally? It is not immediately obvious from the two postulates. I'm asking because this is important for the validity of the Hubble Law.

As I understand, one of the Special Relativity roots is the statement that two events SIMULTANEOUS in one inertial frame are NOT necessarily simultaneous in another inertial frame that is moving against the first one. To illustrate and PROVE this statement Einstein gave his well known example...

Reading an old thread (wich is now closed or i would post the question there) there was a discussion about the size of a photon, and if it was an adequate question at all. The discussion on the other thread couldn't agree on a response. Yet there was some postulates that could work with this...

Homework Statement Show that if x^{\mu} is timelike and x^{\mu}y_{\mu}=0, y^{\mu}\neq 0, then y^\mu is spacelike. Homework Equations ds^2=\\>0\hspace{0.5cm}\text{timelike}\\<0\hspace{0.5cm}\text{spacelike}\\0\hspace{0.5cm}\text{lightlike} metric is diag (+---) The Attempt at a Solution Don't...

Homework Statement [/B] A low flying Earth satellite travels at about 8000m/s. For the satellite, the relativistic factor $$\gamma = \frac{1}{\sqrt{1-\beta^2}}$$ where $$\beta = \frac{v}{c}$$ is close to 1 because v<<c. Estimate by how much gamma actually deviates from 1 by expanding gamma in...

So let's say you're sitting on the ground (observer A) and there's a car or something that moves at .99c (observer B). (Of course, this is all hypothetical) Now, my interpretation goes that when A is seeing B, the information he gets is distorted, namely due to time dilation, length contraction...

Homework Statement Consider two photons, one with energy ε1 = 2MeV traveling to the right, and the other with energy ε2 = 3MeV moving tot he left. The two photons collide head-on and produce a positron-electron pair. Suppose the the electron and positron move along the same axis as the photons...

I started special relativity course at science world u website Is this course enough? Or is there is more powerful course? I need a book for special relativity from A to Z Thanks

Homework Statement Using the special relativity formulae p = mv / [1 - (v/c)2] E2 = p2c2 + m2c4 derive linear relations between: (i) momentum and mass; (ii) energy and mass; (iii) energy and momentum, which involve only c, c2, β = v/c, and γ (= 1/sqrt(1 - β2)) The attempt at a solution I am...

Let's say we have a clock that work like this , districts beam of lights are sent in constant time gaps (created by a crystal or some other radioactive process) to a sensor. the sensor is connected to a counter that counts the number of beams, and here we have our clock. Now if we put 2 clocks...

Homework Statement Assume that the train shown in the figure below is 1.9 km long as measured by the observer at C' and is moving at 170 km/h. (The point C' is midway along this train.) What time interval between the arrival of the wave fronts at C' is measured by the observer at C in S...

In Euclidean geometry, the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality is ##|e\cdot f| \le |e||f|##. In a Minkowskian signature, the inequality is reversed for timelike vectors. Apparently for spacelike vectors it depends on whether the two vectors span the light cone...

I want college-level problems books on the following physics topics: 1)Quantum Mechanics 2)Electromagnetism 3)Classical Mechanics 4)Thermodynamics (and Statistical Mechanics) 5)Waves 6)Special Relativity

Yesterday, I found the time to write a bit further on my SRT FAQ and wanted to give a quantitative analysis of the Bell space-ship paradox on the example of the two rockets accelerating with constant proper acceleration, and I found a problem, I cannot solve. So I took this section out from my...

special relativity says speed can be additive and subtractive ,our motion influences the speed , i did not get this part .how can our motion influence the speed of other object ?and how can speed be additive and subtractive

If two people are in in space ships traveling next to each other at the same speed and they are going close to the speed of light they see each other expiriencing time more slowly. Why does this happen?

Hello, Before starting, I would like to apologize for any errors in the use of symbols. This is my first time :sorry:. I am studying the wonderful book of Barton Zwiebach, "A First Course in StringTheory". In chapter 02, I am experiencing for the first time with the mathematics of special...

Hope this derivation helps someone!

Any advice on my derivation layout?

would that person go into the future?why? also if i travel 1,000,000 m/s on Earth and my friend travels 20m/s per second on Earth would we experience 2 different time frame? so basically the second question is if someone travels a different speed than me on Earth whether the difference of speed...

When one considers a Lorentz transformation between two frames ##S## and ##S'##, such that the coordinates in ##S## are given by ##x^{\mu}## and the coordinates in ##S'## are given by ##x'^{\mu}##, with the two related by x'^{\mu}=\Lambda^{\mu}_{\;\;\nu}x^{\nu} then a scalar field ##\phi (x)##...

CASE I - Do magnetic field is felt by observer which is moving and charge is stationary? CASE II- Do magnetic field is felt by observer which is moving with same velocity as that of charge? Does it has some experimental proofs and explanations...

Assume there is an engineer who built a tunnel, tunnel length is 10m, and we have a train its length is also 10m...so the tunnel can encompasses the entire length of the train. But if we assume that train is a light express train, it always comes through the tunnel at relativistic speed, let's...

I'm trying to prove the following statements relating to space-like, time-like and light-like space-time intervals: 1. There exists a reference frame in which two space-time events are simultaneous if and only if the two events are space-like separated. 2. There exists a reference frame in...

I have been reading these notes: http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic455971.files/l10.pdf in which they claim that if two spacetime events are coincident in one frame of reference then they are coincident in all inertial frames of reference, thus spacetime events are absolute i.e. they...

Hi PF, I'm trying to learn both special and general relativity, I have read all about them, learned the basic math needed, but that was all without "enough" exercices to completely understand the theory, so I need problem books that are purely or mostly about problems about special relativity...

One of the basic foundation of special relativity is that the speed of light is a constant, hence time is relative to the inertial framework reference. Usually GPS is also mentioned as a modern experimental evidence. My questions: if Maxwell's equations describe EM fields, how can we derive a...

I am slightly unsure as to whether I have understood the notion of locality correctly. As far as I understand it locality is the statement that if two events occur simultaneously (i.e. at the same time) then no information can be shared between them (they are causally disconnected). Thus a...

First of all, sorry if this is in the wrong forum, wasn't quite sure which one to post it in given the question. My question is, given two space-time points ##x^{\mu}## and ##y^{\mu}##, if the events that occur at these points are simultaneous, i.e. ##x^{0}=y^{0}##, are the two events...

suppose person B was standing with person A at some point O and now person B starts to move with velocity c/2 w.r.t A on a straight track(starting from O) and both the observors(A and B) start to note time on identical clocks attached to their respective frames .Now after 1 second (according to...

Hi. I'm learning about special relativity and want to see whether I understand it correctly. As such, I had 2 thought experiments that I answered, and I want to see whether these answers are correct. If not, could someone please tell me the correct answers? Thanks! Thought Experiment 1: Super...

Think about an electric charged object moves linely, it will produce current hence the magnetic field. But if the obserser moves together with the electron charged object, so there is no relative movement between them, that means the electric charged object is static to the observer, hence...

My question is about foundations of the special relativity theory. In Minkowski's way of presenting special relativity, with a signature "+ - - -", one associates to every couple of events, a spatio-temporal distance which is null on the light cone, positive if the two events are causally...

I saw the following question in the Physics-SE, and thought it is interesting. "In the special relativity it is well established that, in the vacuum no one can ever travel faster than light, due to the relativistic velocity addition formula. However, it is legitimated to ask whether the...

If magnetic charge exists, it can flow. Would the flow of magnetic charge produce a current that would be a source for the curl of B, in Ampere's law? Ever yours Bob Eisenberg Chairman emeritus Dept of Molecular Biophysics Rush University Medical Center

Let's say I keep on dropping electrons on one spot of a Rindler horizon. Does the charge of the spot increase without a limit? When the charge of the spot is very large, does the spot exert a Coulomb force on the electron I'm about to drop, causing the electron to start moving away from the...

Homework Statement An unstable ion of mass ##M##, energy ##E## emits a massless particle of energy ##E_\nu## at angle ##\theta##. In the rest frame of the ion, find ##E_\nu^*## and ##cos \theta^*##. Ions are now accelerated to ##\gamma=100## and a detector with radius ##r=20m## is placed...

Homework Statement In the twin paradox suppose the twins are named Dick and Jane. And they both are 20 years old.Dick takes off on a voyage at a speed of 0.8c to a star 20 light years away.Lets say that both the twins send each other signals once a year while Dick is away.How many signals does...

1. A distant camera is taking an image of a bullet of proper length l_0 and velocity v. The bullet is moving on a straight line which is parallel to the ruler (a bit behind the bullet, when it is watched from the camera). An angle between the velocity vector and the line that connects the camera...

I recently found and interest in physics after reading KK Introductory Mechanics. I was thinking of learning EnM from Purcell. From my reading of these forums. Purcell introduces Max. Equations using special relativity. I do not know anything about SR (you can I am a virgin at physics). I...

Homework Statement Find the observed frequency ##\nu## in terms of proper frequency ##\nu_0##, speed ##v## and radial velocity component ##v_r## for a source moving at velocity ##\vec v## with respect to the observer. Now consider an observer in frame S where the source is seen moving at...

Homework Statement A beam of pion mesons travels down a tube at the CERN accelerator moving at v/c=0.95 with respect to the laboratory. (i) Compute the γ factor for these pions. (ii) The pion lifetime is 2.6 × 10−8 s, what is the lifetime measured at the laboratory? (iii) The pions travel 50...

An object having mass of 90 kg and traveling at a speed of 0.850c collides with a stationary object having mass 1400 kg. The two objects stick together. (8pts) a) Find the speed of the composite object.b) Find the mass of the composite object Hello, I would appreciate any insight into...

Consider an infinite wire that has no electric current initially. Then current starts to flow in the wire, i.e. the free electron drifts at speed ##v## (and the positive charges are fixed) Applying special relativity, it appears that the distance between the electrons shrinks, i.e, density of...