- #1
pjhphysics
- 16
- 0
Hi,
I am a bit confused about a certain aspect of Special Relativity and I am hoping someone can clear this up for me.
Let's say we have an event and two observers. Observer A stands a few meters from the event, Observer B is hundreds of thousands of miles from it. Relative to the event and to one another, both observers are at rest. Since light travels at a finite speed, this event will take longer to reach Observer B than it will to reach Observer A. So, in an "absolute" reference frame, the event occurs earlier for Observer A than for Observer B. It seems the way to solve this difference is to require separate frames of reference for each observer. However, I am not certain that I am correct in my thinking here because I know that special relativity concerns moving observers. How do we account for this and am I correct in my thinking that we must assign separate reference frames to each observer even though each is at rest to the other and with respect to the event? Thank you for your help.
I am a bit confused about a certain aspect of Special Relativity and I am hoping someone can clear this up for me.
Let's say we have an event and two observers. Observer A stands a few meters from the event, Observer B is hundreds of thousands of miles from it. Relative to the event and to one another, both observers are at rest. Since light travels at a finite speed, this event will take longer to reach Observer B than it will to reach Observer A. So, in an "absolute" reference frame, the event occurs earlier for Observer A than for Observer B. It seems the way to solve this difference is to require separate frames of reference for each observer. However, I am not certain that I am correct in my thinking here because I know that special relativity concerns moving observers. How do we account for this and am I correct in my thinking that we must assign separate reference frames to each observer even though each is at rest to the other and with respect to the event? Thank you for your help.