Special Relativity - Spatial Race

[arcanis]

Homework Statement

The tortoise challenged the hare to a race in the woods. The fox is the judge and he stood still. The rabbit started the race 6 minutes after the turtle.

The fox said that the turtle won the race after 20 minutes and that the hare arrived 1 minute after the hare. But the hare said "That is not true, I arrived one minute before the turtle".

In the turtle's clock, It was marking 16 minutes when it crossed the line.

Homework Equations

What is the velocity of the hare and the tortoise? Could you explain what happened?

The Attempt at a Solution

I know the velocities, but this is completely weird for me. How can the winner depend of the referential?

 

[jbsteele]

The velocity of the hare and the tortoise can be calculated by dividing the distance by the time it took each one to reach the finish line. The distance is the same for both, so we can calculate the velocities as follows:Tortoise: Distance/Time = 6min/20min = 0.3 m/s Hare: Distance/Time = 6min/19min = 0.31 m/s In this case, the hare was slightly faster than the tortoise. However, the fox said that the turtle won the race after 20 minutes, while the hare claimed that he arrived one minute before the turtle. This means that the turtle reached the finish line first according to the fox's clock, but the hare reached it first according to his own clock. This is because the clocks were not synchronized, so they were running on different times. Therefore, the winner of the race depended on which clock was used as the reference.