Relativity: Projectile Motion at an Angle on Spaceship

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Homework Help Overview

The discussion revolves around a problem in the context of relativity, specifically focusing on projectile motion involving a light pulse fired from a gun on a spaceship moving at a significant fraction of the speed of light. The original poster seeks to determine the angle of the gun in the rest frame of an Earth observer and the angle at which the light pulse travels as perceived by that observer.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Assumption checking, Mathematical reasoning

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • Participants discuss the application of Einstein's Relativity Addition formula to find the relative velocity of the light pulse. There is uncertainty regarding how to determine the angle of the gun in the stationary reference frame and whether the angle remains unchanged.

Discussion Status

Some participants have attempted calculations using various formulas and have shared their results, including angles derived from their computations. There is ongoing exploration of the relationships between the angles and velocities in different frames of reference, with no clear consensus yet on the correctness of the derived angles.

Contextual Notes

Participants note challenges with formatting equations and express concerns about potentially overlooking simple aspects of the problem. The discussion reflects a mix of attempts to clarify the setup and the mathematical relationships involved.

mochi_melon
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Homework Statement


On a spaceship moving 5/6C, an astronaut fires a light pulse from a gun. The barrel of the gun makes an angle of 60 degrees from the X direction relative to the spaceship. What angle does the gun make in the rest frame of an observer on Earth and what angle does the light pulse move for the same Earth observer?

Homework Equations


[tex]u^{'}_{x}[/tex]=C*cos[tex]\theta[/tex]
[tex]V^{'}_{x}[/tex]=5/6C
[tex]u_{x}[/tex]=[tex]\stackrel{u^{'}_{x}+V^{'}_{x}}{1+\stackrel{u^{'}_{x}V^{'}_{x}}{c^{2}}}[/tex]

For some reason the formatting didn't work out - the last equation is Einstein's Relative Addition formula.

The Attempt at a Solution


I found a value of 2.8216x[tex]10^{8}[/tex] for the relative velocity in the x direction of the light pulse to the Earth observer, but I do not know what the next step would be. I suspect that the angle of the gun itself does not change, but I'm not sure how to prove or disprove this. Thanks!
 
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Ok, upon looking in my notes once more I found how to find the velocity of the light pulse as measured by the Earth observer and thus its components/angle, but I am still at a total loss to find at what angle the gun itself is in the stationary reference frame. Since that was the part A I suspect it is something very simple I am overlooking :(
 
With the gun as the hypotenuse, draw a right-triangle with legs along the x- and y-axes.
What is the corresponding triangle in the Earth's frame?
 
I wound up following the formulas (copied from another website since I'm having trouble having the division lines come up properly for these formulas)

wx = (ux + vx) / (1 + ux vx / c2) = (48/51)c
wy = uy / [(1 + ux vx / c2) gamma(vx)] = .337915c
wz = uz / [(1 + ux vx / c2) gamma(vx)] = 0

Where w is the velocity seen on Earth, u is the pulse velocity and v is the spaceship. I got an angle that is way less than the original ([tex]19.75^{o}[/tex]) Does that make sense?


As for the angle of the gun itself, I used these equations:
[tex]L_{x}[/tex]=[tex]\frac{l_{ox}}{\gamma(v_{x})}[/tex]=[tex]l_{o}cos60\sqrt{11/36}[/tex]
[tex]L_{y}[/tex]=[tex]\frac{l_{oy}}{\gamma(v_{y})}[/tex]=[tex]l_{o}sin60[/tex]

Resulting in an angle of [tex]72.3^{o}[/tex]. Again, is this a logical answer or did I do something wrong?
 

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