- #1
Pseudo Statistic
- 391
- 6
I'm having 2 problems... with two questions...
1) A spaceship travels with a constant speed 0.8c as it passes over Earth; some time after passint Earth, the pilor shoots a laser pulse backward at a speed of 3 x 10^8 meters per second with respect to the spaceship. Determine the speed of the laser pulse as measured by a person on Earth.
What does relativity say about stuff like this involving things traveling at the speed of light? Would it be 0.8 c - 3 x 10 ^8? Or is that incorrect?
2) There's a question with a diagram like this:
http://www.brokendream.net/xh4/diagphys2.jpg
Blocks 1 and 2 of masses m1 and m2 respectively are connected by a light string, as shown above. These blocks are further connected to a block of mass M by another light string that passes over a pulley of negligible mass and friction. Blocks 1 and 2 move with a constant velocity v down the inclined plane, which makes an angle theta with the horizontal. The kinetic frictional force on block 1 is f and that on block 2 is 2f.
Normally I know how to do these questions but I'm having one little problem- how do I analyze the forces on m1 and m2? I mean, since they're moving down the incline at constant velocity, they're in dynamic equilibrium which means the sum of all forces = 0 and in m2's case I'm thinking the forces would be:
m2 g sin theta - 2f - T = 0 ? And on m1, m1 g sin theta - f = 0 and T - Mg = 0? But does m1 or m2 exert a force on the other or something?
I don't know, I guess I never really understood Newton's third law...
Can someone please clarify? Thanks a lot.
1) A spaceship travels with a constant speed 0.8c as it passes over Earth; some time after passint Earth, the pilor shoots a laser pulse backward at a speed of 3 x 10^8 meters per second with respect to the spaceship. Determine the speed of the laser pulse as measured by a person on Earth.
What does relativity say about stuff like this involving things traveling at the speed of light? Would it be 0.8 c - 3 x 10 ^8? Or is that incorrect?
2) There's a question with a diagram like this:
http://www.brokendream.net/xh4/diagphys2.jpg
Blocks 1 and 2 of masses m1 and m2 respectively are connected by a light string, as shown above. These blocks are further connected to a block of mass M by another light string that passes over a pulley of negligible mass and friction. Blocks 1 and 2 move with a constant velocity v down the inclined plane, which makes an angle theta with the horizontal. The kinetic frictional force on block 1 is f and that on block 2 is 2f.
Normally I know how to do these questions but I'm having one little problem- how do I analyze the forces on m1 and m2? I mean, since they're moving down the incline at constant velocity, they're in dynamic equilibrium which means the sum of all forces = 0 and in m2's case I'm thinking the forces would be:
m2 g sin theta - 2f - T = 0 ? And on m1, m1 g sin theta - f = 0 and T - Mg = 0? But does m1 or m2 exert a force on the other or something?
I don't know, I guess I never really understood Newton's third law...
Can someone please clarify? Thanks a lot.
Last edited by a moderator:
