- #1
kernelpenguin
- 46
- 0
I was thinking about relativity after a lecture the other day and I came across something, well, odd.
Imagine an electron flying at near c. It would look like a pancake that doesn't much care for aerodynamics. How much it resembles a pancake would pop out of the Lorentz equations for its contraction as its speed nears c. So we can say that a particle that is by all means spherical when it is at rest would end up being contracted to zero length in the direction it's traveling should it ever reach c.
The contraction, therefore, applies to elementary particles. But what makes people think it also applies to macroscopic objects? A macroscopic object is a bunch of microscopic objects. So let the contraction apply to tiny parts of you as you near the speed of light. I'm pretty sure it won't bother me if all the particles in my body take on a slightly more flattened shape. Why should my shape change because of this?
And most importantly, is there experimental evidence for macroscopic objects flattening like this as they near relativistic speeds?
Imagine an electron flying at near c. It would look like a pancake that doesn't much care for aerodynamics. How much it resembles a pancake would pop out of the Lorentz equations for its contraction as its speed nears c. So we can say that a particle that is by all means spherical when it is at rest would end up being contracted to zero length in the direction it's traveling should it ever reach c.
The contraction, therefore, applies to elementary particles. But what makes people think it also applies to macroscopic objects? A macroscopic object is a bunch of microscopic objects. So let the contraction apply to tiny parts of you as you near the speed of light. I'm pretty sure it won't bother me if all the particles in my body take on a slightly more flattened shape. Why should my shape change because of this?
And most importantly, is there experimental evidence for macroscopic objects flattening like this as they near relativistic speeds?