Monkey and Hunter Problem - General Relativity?

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The monkey and hunter problem illustrates how observations differ between accelerated and stationary frames of reference. In an accelerated frame, a light pulse can appear to hit a stationary monkey, while in a stationary frame, it misses as the monkey drops. This thought experiment suggests that the equivalence of frames may not hold when light is involved, challenging the notion that light behaves consistently across different gravitational contexts. The discussion hints at a relationship between gravity, space, and time, potentially linking to concepts in general relativity. The implications raise questions about the nature of light's behavior in varying gravitational fields.
SpartanG345
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Hi
You guys probably have heard about the monkey and hunter problem.

Basically in the monkey an hunter problem you can see the dart hits all the time if you observe the experiment in an accelerated frame of reference ie your falling with the monkey. You see the bullet travel in a straight line and the monkey stationary. The collision occurs exactly at the same time for both accelerated and stationary frames of reference

Basically i modified it slight with this thought experiment.

- Pretend the monkey is very small
- instead of firing a dart fire a very small pulse of light like a photon.

Observing from the 1st frame of reference you see the pulse miss the monkey it travels in a straight line and the monkey drops a bit

In the second accelerated frame of reference
The the pulse of light can either travel in a parabola if you apply the frame of reference transformation rules ( adding -g to every object), which doesn't make sense since light cannot accelerate

Or the pulse of light will travel in a straight line and this time HIT the monkey since the monkey is stationary in the accelerated frame of reference therefore the frames of reference are no longer equivalent.

Implying a relation ship between gravity space and time for equivalence to hold... don't know if this leads to general relativity...?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Light bends in gravity... yep.
 

Thread 'Am I understanding the concept of proper frame of reference?'

MOVING CLOCKS In this section, we show that clocks moving at high speeds run slowly. We construct a clock, called a light clock, using a stick of proper lenght ##L_0##, and two mirrors. The two mirrors face each other, and a pulse of light bounces back and forth betweem them. Each time the light pulse strikes one of the mirrors, say the lower mirror, the clock is said to tick. Between successive ticks the light pulse travels a distance ##2L_0## in the proper reference of frame of the clock...
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