Making sure events are simultaneous in S'

[Shaybay92]

I have a problem where it requires me to find when a laser should be fired at an asteroid to ensure that in the reference frame of the asteroid, the laser hits the back and front within 1 millisecond. I thought that I could define events in S' such that the front and back are hit at t' = 0, and then see what events this would correspond to in S. Thus I would know when the events must happen in S to ensure simultaneity. Is this correct?

 

[Dale]

I have a problem where it requires me to find when a laser should be fired at an asteroid to ensure that in the reference frame of the asteroid, the laser hits the back and front within 1 millisecond. I thought that I could define events in S' such that the front and back are hit at t' = 0, and then see what events this would correspond to in S. Thus I would know when the events must happen in S to ensure simultaneity. Is this correct?

Yes, that would work.

 

[Shaybay92]

It seems logical to me, however when I try and use inverse lorentz transformations on those events to get the coordinates in S and then re-transform those S coordinates back into S' it says that those events are not simultaneous in S'. I thought this was a 'closed loop'. I should get the original events I defined back right?

 

[Dale]

Yes. That is what it means for a transform to be an inverse. You must have made an arithmetic error.