DaleSpam said:
I don't get it. You feel that it resolves even as you look at it different ways. So what specifically is still missing? Just the boundary condition? Well,
http://www.springerlink.com/content/q70853654x88pv47/" that I found, but since I don't have free access I don't know what level it is written at.
Perhaps, If I were to re-created the thread, I would call it the radar trap "dilemma".
A lemma is a small proof -- di, indicates half asked / or two ways. (formal definition in Greek may be different...)
There are two solutions -- they resolve into distinct answers which do not agree -- but each conserves energy.
Either proof, taken by itself, solves the problem -- but both answers are not correct.
Consider the "twin paradox". In the domain of SRT acceleration is not accounted for.
That is how the "paradox" arises. As soon as Einstein "solved" (and since he "solved" it why did he bother to print it as a paradox in the first place?) it by breaking the symmetry one solution presented itself.
There is still a dilemma, though, and it is very deadly for people calculating SRT problems.
The twin paradox shows that calculations that do not know the history of acceleration can be in error.
Gedanken illustration #1:
The two people doing the twin paradox experiment have Alzheimers disease. They do not know who "really" accelerated. How do they determine which item to adjust for doppler shift -- and which one to mark as the "real" clock ?
Gedanken illustration #2:
Pooh poohing #1, (the could have written it down) -- let's say the experiment took a long time. The original experimenters made the big bang in the universe. The new generation of experimenters are on a spaceship called earth. How to they correct for Doppler shift?
So, even though Einstein "solved" the problem -- he didn't really resolve it in SRT. He gave a *plausible* answer -- that's all.
One can always imagine for any given twin paradox scenario a history for which the observers are ignorant.
Along the exact same lines of thought: (Anectdotal humor).
#1
I came out of my physics class thinking that Doppler shift was an audio phenomena and did not apply to light because of how my teacher presented the class on the inferometer. Michaelson inferometer was the death knell. (oops).
I was able to work all the problems in class... boy, when my brother got a speeding ticket, was I ever surprised. (Felt stupid too.)
#2
I went to the TA to ask about the fixup of time thing. Eg: in another frame of reference how does one come to the conclusion that the separation speed is the same. I went back to my notes; Guess what the TA told me to do: "Just don't do that".
He indicated that one can work around the problem by codifying that in "my frame of reference" the other person's measurement of their clock is affected by Doppler shift. (DAMN I thought). What difference ought it make, since there is no ether, that my view of their clock is distorted by Doppler shift?
It's
THEIR calculation and view which counts.
Are they NOT justified in claiming their clock is as good as mine?
Obviously not (if the TA's explanation was right). Their calculation of my speed depends on my view of them.
As I said at the beginning of the thread -- I am exploring -- climbing mountains (metaphorical) to see what can be seen. I am adamantly refusing to work in a three reference frame system for these first steps in order to grasp what is knowable in the simplest possible system.
I *DO* know, that any answers I get from working the problem in a single frame of reference will be indisputable.
I think what happened a few posts back is indicative of a stumbling block that you are bringing into this thread -- which was meant to be light-hearted, exploritory, and not dogmatic. I am not certain, but I get the feeling that when you read my post -- you thought that the
only way to calculate the change in speed for an object at rest -- is with respect to the rest frame. That is, you only know of a formula that pretends a fixed third reference frame that initially coincided with the mirror -- and that you thought I meant for you to calculate the speed change with respect to that -- and that THAT number and add it to the 1/2c. Rather than to take the mirror at rest and the policeman as moving in analogy to the classical wall and ball experiment, where I "rode along" with the elastic collision of the ball.
I note that in classical mechanics: E = 0.5 * m * v(t)**2. When one has the integral of something, they already have the derivative accounted for. The change of sign in the classical equation is due to Energy being a square of velocity -- that is, negative signs get *lost*. Taking the derivative of E(t) (above), gets conservation of momentum. The exact same process can be applied to relativistic mechanics. If one carries the sign around for energy (consistently) one does not have to resort to conservation of momentum -- as it is already accounted for.
Now, I graduated with honors before the anxiety sickness set in. Give me a little credit. I mean what I say; when I indicate that a third reference frame is a mistake -- I meant it.
Let me not do to you, what you seem to be doing to me:
Am I understanding you correctly, when I surmised, that you believe all the energy from the returning (reflected or RE-transmitted photon) goes into acceleration of the mirror; and that no extra photons could be produced?
eg: From the literature I note that Compton scattering never speaks of multiple photons, but that there are references in physics literature to a *single* electron emitting multiple photons -- so that the process is not inconceivable. BUT -- In your opinion, the problem at hand (which is neither of those in the literature) only a single photon is ever reflected when a single photon strikes?
Explicity: in the case of a mirror moving 1/2C -- whose mass is 1Kg (or ~1.15Kg relativistically) -- that the 66% of the original photons' energy totally and ONLY goes to accelerating the mirror. It never goes to generating another ~ two photons?
If so, I would like to know -- for I take the opposite view as a hypothesis and recognize that the hypothesis could be decided either way.
As to the boundary condition: I already have solved for it once; See a few posts back.
Now that I have an idea what it looks like, I can use the techniques learned in E&M to arrive at it from totally undergraduate course material.
It will just take time. I have a lot more to cover to get to gravity; and was hoping that of the 1000's reading this, perhaps one would have a hint.
If you all don't want to enter the fray because of the unintentional intensity -- my e-mail is open too. andrew.pub at sophistasis.com
Thanks.