SR equation seems to depend on orientation of the 'light clock'

[joekahr]

No - I did read the instructions before commenting.

Sorry about that. I never tested on Android. Please try on a computer, iPhone or iPad.

 

[joekahr]

The OP's question was about the orientation of the mirrors of a light clock. I noticed that my app (https://joekahr.github.io/lightclock/) had a bug that made changing the orientation difficult. It's fixed now.
I also made the Center Clock default settings more intuitive: clock is moving in the Lab frame, clock is centered in the Rocket frame.

 

[Grasshopper]

That's so cool. Interesting that the light pulses always seem to intersect at the center. That surely indicates some sort of symmetry. Maybe that length contraction applies evenly across the direction of travel.

 

[Ibix]

Interesting that the light pulses always seem to intersect at the center.

They must. You could build an arbitrarily small bomb trigger that would go off if illuminated by all four pulses at once and not if only three or fewer pulses illuminate it. If all four pulses reach the center simultaneously in one frame they must in all, because whether the bomb goes off or not can't be frame dependent.

 

[ergospherical]

They must. You could build an arbitrarily small bomb trigger that would go off if illuminated by all four pulses at once and not if only three or fewer pulses illuminate it. If all four pulses reach the center simultaneously in one frame they must in all, because whether the bomb goes off or not can't be frame dependent.

Physicists are so dramatic — there's always got to be explosion of some sort
What's wrong with a little electronic counter; I mean, it'd probably be cheaper...

 

[robphy]

That's so cool. Interesting that the light pulses always seem to intersect at the center. That surely indicates some sort of symmetry. Maybe that length contraction applies evenly across the direction of travel.

Check out the videos of the "circular light clocks" linked from my earlier reply
https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...ation-of-the-light-clock.1003748/post-6506712