Question for Special Relativity

42Physics
Messages
30
Reaction score
0
I'm in 8th grade and always have my head in the clouds, and today I thought of something. Einstein's thought experiment with the train and the light reaching the center observer , how time will run slower as you move faster, well I got a question about it. Okay, since the light from point (a) has to travel more distance to get to the center observer on the train, it would take longer as you know. BUT, what about the light from (b)? Wouldnt it have to travel less distance to the observer making the clock "tick" faster? Here is a diagram to help explain
 

Attachments

  • 1363213303375.jpg
    1363213303375.jpg
    15.2 KB · Views: 518
Physics news on Phys.org
So wouldn't it not change anything at all?
 
You are correct. That is why when Michelson and Morley attempted to measure the ether wind, they compared two paths that were 90 degrees apart from each other. Here is a thread I made that you might find interesting.
 

Thread 'Describing the Big Bang'

I started reading a National Geographic article related to the Big Bang. It starts these statements: Gazing up at the stars at night, it’s easy to imagine that space goes on forever. But cosmologists know that the universe actually has limits. First, their best models indicate that space and time had a beginning, a subatomic point called a singularity. This point of intense heat and density rapidly ballooned outward. My first reaction was that this is a layman's approximation to...
View full post »
Thread 'Dirac's integral for the energy-momentum of the gravitational field'

Thread 'Dirac's integral for the energy-momentum of the gravitational field'

See Dirac's brief treatment of the energy-momentum pseudo-tensor in the attached picture. Dirac is presumably integrating eq. (31.2) over the 4D "hypercylinder" defined by ##T_1 \le x^0 \le T_2## and ##\mathbf{|x|} \le R##, where ##R## is sufficiently large to include all the matter-energy fields in the system. Then \begin{align} 0 &= \int_V \left[ ({t_\mu}^\nu + T_\mu^\nu)\sqrt{-g}\, \right]_{,\nu} d^4 x = \int_{\partial V} ({t_\mu}^\nu + T_\mu^\nu)\sqrt{-g} \, dS_\nu \nonumber\\ &= \left(...
View full post »

Thread 'A sufficient condition for integrability of equation ##\nabla g=0##'

In Philippe G. Ciarlet's book 'An introduction to differential geometry', He gives the integrability conditions of the differential equations like this: $$ \partial_{i} F_{lj}=L^p_{ij} F_{lp},\,\,\,F_{ij}(x_0)=F^0_{ij}. $$ The integrability conditions for the existence of a global solution ##F_{lj}## is: $$ R^i_{jkl}\equiv\partial_k L^i_{jl}-\partial_l L^i_{jk}+L^h_{jl} L^i_{hk}-L^h_{jk} L^i_{hl}=0 $$ Then from the equation: $$\nabla_b e_a= \Gamma^c_{ab} e_c$$ Using cartesian basis ## e_I...
View full post »

Similar threads

B Does Time Move Slower for Travelers in Special Relativity Experiments?
Replies
29
Views
3K
I Variation of the lightning train thought experiment
Replies
21
Views
3K
I A question about Relativity of Time using Time dilation experiment
Replies
12
Views
2K
I [SR] light shot at an angle in a moving train
Replies
5
Views
1K
I A problem with how the speed of light connects to special relativity
Replies
12
Views
2K
I Shouldn't a moving clock appear to be ticking faster instead of slower?
2
Replies
71
Views
7K
B Do photons travel instantaneously?
Replies
41
Views
5K
I Analyzing Time Dilation in a Spaceship-Mars Scenario
Replies
14
Views
2K
I Special Relativity Controversy: Solving the Paradox
Replies
5
Views
1K
B Do observers always agree on the number of waves in a beam of light?
Replies
12
Views
1K

Hot Threads

Recent Insights

Back
Top