Velocity required to reach star in 10 onboard years

Join the discussion
Registration is free. Start your own thread to ask a follow-up.
1 reply · 2K views
alanthreonus
Messages
9
Reaction score
0

Homework Statement



You wish to travel to the Pleiades (at a distance of 130 pc) in 10 years, according to the clock
that you carry. How fast do you have to travel to accomplish this (express the velocity as a
fraction of speed of light, v/c)?

Homework Equations



[tex] \Delta T = \gamma \Delta T_0[/tex]

The Attempt at a Solution



I've been stuck on this for hours, and I really don't know how I'm supposed to set this up. If someone could just help me set it up, I can do all the calculations myself.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
d=vt. You know t=10 years. d can be found via the length contraction formula: to an onboard observer, the distance to the Pleiades seems contracted by a factor of gamma.