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bigevil
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Homework Statement
This is an example problem although I don't really understand it.
Train A is moving at 4c/5 and train B moves at 3c/5 with respect to observer C.
Let E1 be the event "front of A passing back of B" and E2 be the event "back of A passing the front of B".
An traveller D (who is in train B) walks from the back of B to the front of B and coincides with both E1 and E2. What is the speed he walks at and how long does D measure the overtaking process to be?
2. ?
I just need a little hint here. This is actually an example problem from my book, so I do have the working and answer provided, but I don't actually understand what the significance of the observer D coinciding with both events is.
The book states immediately that as a result of the condition here, and looking at the point of view of D, A moves at speed v wrt D and B moves at speed -v wrt D. Then it uses the velocity addition again to get [tex]\frac{2v}{1+v^2/c^2} = \frac{5c}{13}[/tex]. The book concludes that v = c/5, upon solving the equation given earlier.
Once this is done, the rest is easy: using the velocity of either A or B relative to D, find the contracted length of each train and divide by c/5 to get the required answer, which is [tex]2\sqrt{6}L/c[/tex].
(From an earlier and easier half of the question, velocity addition finds that A moves at 5c/13 with respect to B.)
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