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Tutorial 1

This document provides a tutorial on relativity and contains 20 questions covering key concepts like: 1) Observers always measure the speed of light to be the same regardless of relative motion. 2) Michelson-Morley experiments aimed to detect the ether but found no evidence of it. 3) An observer on a passing train measures the proper time on a clock onboard, while an outside observer measures the proper length of the train car and distance between railroad ties. 4) Relativistic effects cause time to pass slower for an object in motion, so a culture of bacteria ages slower on a fast-moving rocket.

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873 views5 pages

Tutorial 1

This document provides a tutorial on relativity and contains 20 questions covering key concepts like: 1) Observers always measure the speed of light to be the same regardless of relative motion. 2) Michelson-Morley experiments aimed to detect the ether but found no evidence of it. 3) An observer on a passing train measures the proper time on a clock onboard, while an outside observer measures the proper length of the train car and distance between railroad ties. 4) Relativistic effects cause time to pass slower for an object in motion, so a culture of bacteria ages slower on a fast-moving rocket.

Uploaded by

Bee Beezz
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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TUTORIAL 1

RELATIVITY

1) Which of the following quantities will two observers always measure to be the
same, regardless of the relative velocity between the observers:
a) the time interval between two events;
b) the length of an object;
c) the speed of light in a vacuum;
d) the relative speed between the observers?
In each case, give a reason for your answer.

2) Discuss briefly the Michelson and Morley ideas to verify the existence of
lumineferous ether which is the medium of light to propagating through it (in
terms of mathematical derivation and experiment set-up)

3) Suppose you are standing at a railroad crossing, watching a train go by.

a) Both you and a passenger in the train are looking at a clock on the train.
Which of you measures the proper time interval?

b) Who measures the proper length of the train car?

c) Who measures the proper distance between the railroad ties under the
track?

Justify your answers.


4) As observed on earth, a certain type of bacterium is known to double in number
every 24.0 hours. Two cultures of these bacteria are prepared, each consisting
initially of one bacterium. One culture is left on earth and the other placed on a
rocket that travels at a speed of 0.866c relative to the earth. At a time when the
earthbound culture has grown to 256 bacteria, how many bacteria are in the
culture on the rocket, according to an earth-based observer?

5) A particle known as a pion lives for a short time before breaking apart into other
particles. Suppose a pion is moving at a speed of 0.990c, and an observer who is
stationary in a laboratory measures the pion’s lifetime to be .

a) What is the lifetime according to a hypothetical person who is riding along


with the pion?

b) According to this hypothetical person, how far does the laboratory move
before the pion breaks apart?

6) An object triangle has a theta 30.0o as show at that figure above. If that trinagle
above moving fast nearly to the speed of light about 0.8c in x-direction.

a) Find the angle θ that observer in the earth rest-frame determines?

b) then find if the angleθ if the object moving vertically (y-direction) with the
same velocity.
7) A space traveler moving at a speed of 0.70c with respect to the earth makes a trip
to a distant star that is stationary relative to the earth. He measures the length of
this trip to be 6.5 light-years. What would be the length of this same trip (in light-
years) as measured by a traveler moving at a speed of 0.90c with respect to the
earth?

8) An unstable high-energy particle is created in the laboratory, and it moves at a


speed of 0.990c. Relative to a stationary reference frame fixed to the laboratory,
the particle travels a distance of 1.05 × 10–3 m before disintegrating. What is

a) the proper distance and

b) the distance measured by a hypothetical person traveling with the particle?


Determine the particle’s

c) proper lifetime and

d) its dilated lifetime.

9) Two particles are created in high energy accelaerator and move off in opposite
directions. The speed of one particle, as measured in the laboratory, is 0.650c, and
the speed of leach particle relative to othr is 0.950c. what is speed of the second

particle, as measured in the laboratory? Hint:

10) Two particles in a high energy accelerator experiment approach each other head-
on with a relative speed of 0.890c. Both particles travel at the same speed as
measured in the laboratory. What is the speed of each particles, as measured in the

laboratory? Hint: and quadratic equation.


11) If the speed of light were infinitely large instead of , would the
effects of a) simultaneity, b) time dilation, c) length contraction and d) relavistic
energy be observable? Explain, using the related equations to support your
reasoning.

12) Derive the expression for frequency of Doppler effect measured by observer who
moving forward to the source that emit the light.

13) How fast must you be moving toward a red light ( ) for it to appear
a) yellow ( )
b) green (λ=525nm)
c) and blue (λ=460nm)

14) If green light emits by spaceship is moving forward to observer who stationary
relative to spaceship and observer sees was the red light emits from that
spaceship. How much speed of the spaceship?

15) A spaceship is approaching the earth at a relative speed of 0.85c. The mass of the
ship is 2.0 × 107 kg. Find the magnitude of

a) the classical momentum and


b) the relativistic

16) A jetliner has a mass of 1.2 = 105 kg and flies at a speed of 140 m/s.

a) Find the magnitude of its momentum.


b) If the speed of light in a vacuum had the hypothetical value of 170 m/s,
what would be the magnitude of the jetliner’s momentum?
17) Derive that the energy-momentum relationship, from the
expressions

18) Determine the ratio of the relativistic kinetic energy to the non-relativistic kinetic

energy ( ) when a particle has a speed of

a) a) and
b) 0.970c.

19) Suppose one gallon of gasoline produces of energy, and this energy is
sufficient to operate a car for twenty miles. An aspirin tablet has a mass of
325 mg. If the aspirin could be converted completely into thermal energy, how
many miles could the car go on a single tablet?

20) How much work must be done to increase the speed of an electrons from
1.2x108 m/s to 2.4x108 m/s ?

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