(a) Lightening strikes the front and the back of a moving train at the same time
ID: 2077645 • Letter: #
Question
(a) Lightening strikes the front and the back of a moving train at the same time from the perspective of Stanley (Figure 1). From Mavis's perspective, which side of the train was struck first (Front, back or at the same time)? (b) State the two postulates of special relativity, (c) Figure 2 shows a light clock on Mavis' train traveling at speed upsilon relative to Stanley. According to her, the time it takes for the photon to complete one round trip is Delta t_0, but according to Stanley the trip takes time Delta t. Use the figure to derive the relationship between Delta t_0 and Delta t. Figure 1: Question 1Explanation / Answer
a) For the given problem as the train is travelling into one direction, the lightning strikes there first in Mavis's perespective
b) the two postulates of special relativity are as under:
1. The laws of physics are the same in all inertial systems
2. The speed of light in vaccum is a constant, and is same for all observers regardless of their relative motion with the light source
c) From the figure we can see,
in mavis' frame
speed of photon = c
time = dto
length = gamma*lo
so dto = gamma*lo/c
from stanley's frame
dt = lo/c
so, dto = gamma*dt
gamma = sqroot(1 - (v/c)^2)
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