- #1
apope
- 14
- 0
my textbook shows me an example where an astronaut is in a spaceship beside 2 parallel mirrors with a beam of light coming from the bottom, reflecting off the top and coming back to the bottom. It says that the light has to travel farther if the spaceship is moving because it must travel the hypotenuse of the triangle where y is mirror to mirror and x is the distance the ship travels. and therefore the light takes more time from an observer on Earth's frame of reference than the astronaut's (where it only travels the y component). what i don't get is why, in the case of the moving ship, if the beam is shot from the middle of the bottom mirror does it not hit the top mirror a little bit off center and come back to the bottom one in not exactly the same position..
so basically.. if the ship is moving near the speed of light (or if the mirrors are incredibly small), couldn't the beam of light coming from the bottom mirror miss the top mirror, because by the time it reached the top it had moved with the spaceship?
so basically.. if the ship is moving near the speed of light (or if the mirrors are incredibly small), couldn't the beam of light coming from the bottom mirror miss the top mirror, because by the time it reached the top it had moved with the spaceship?