Physics 1

DIVINE WORD COLLEGE OF BANGUED
Bangued, Abra
School of Arts, Sciences and Education
Bachelor of Elementary Education/Bachelor of Secondary Education
Palangi, Genesis B.
BSED 2
Answer the following questions.
1. Is Earth an inertial frame of reference? Is the sun? Justify your response.
 Earth and sun are not an inertial frame, as both are rotating and orbiting when an inertial frame
of reference is a frame which is moving with a constant speed and also an inertial frame should
be neither rotating nor accelerating , as an object in such system would yield to have a fictitious
force acting upon the object, resulting in a motion that is not in a straight line.
2. How could you travel far into the future without aging significantly? Could this method also allow you
to travel into the past?
 Practically, there is no way to do either. In theory, you can use the relativistic effects of moving
very close to the speed of light, as other posters have indicated, but we have no method of
actually getting a human sized object to that speed. We would need to discover a new portable
power source in order to keep accelerating quick enough and long enough for the relativistic
effects to be significant.
 There is no known way to travel backwards in time. Many physics equations work going
backwards as well as forwards in time, but not all of them do.
3. Suppose an astronaut is moving relative to Earth at a significant fraction of the speed of light.
(a) Does he observe the rate of his clocks to have slowed?
 No
(b) What change in the rate of Earth-bound clocks does he see?
 Astronaut sees that the clock on the earth runs slow
(c) Does his ship seem to him to shorten?
 Ship does not seem shorter
(d) What about the distance between stars that lie on lines parallel to his motion?
 Astronaut is moving with respect to both stars
(e) Do the and an Earth-bound observer agree on his velocity relative to Earth?
 Yes
4. Explain the meaning of the terms red shift and blue shift as they relate to the relativistic Doppler
effect.
 A blueshift is any decrease in wavelength, increase in frequency. the opposite effect is referred
to as redshift. In visible light, this shifts the color from the red end of the spectrum to the blue
end. The term also applies when photons outside the visible spectrum are shifted toward
shorter wavelengths, as well as to shifts in the de Broglie wavelength of particles.
Bangued, Abra
A redshift occurs whenever a light source moves away from an observer. Doppler blueshift is
caused by movement of a source towards the observer.
 The Doppler effect refers to the behavior of sound waves as the source generating them moves
towards of away from you. As the source moves, the percieved frequency chambers as the
waves are stretched of compressed artificially by the movement of the source. This causes
things moving towards him to sound higher pitch, while things moving away sound lower.
 Doppler shift in light is the same principle, just swap sound waves for light waves. And instead
of sounding higher pitched, we see it blue shifted, because blue light has the higher frequency.
Same with an object moving away. The light waves emitted by it are artificially stretched,
making it appear red shifted.
5. Given the fact that light travels at C, can it have mass? Explain.
Light indeed carries energy and accomplishes this without having any mass. The Einstein equation that
you are probably referring to is E = mc2. This equation is actually a special case of the more general
equation:
E2 = p2c2 + m2c4
In the above equation, E is the total energy of the particle, p is the momentum of the particle (which is
related to its motion), c is the speed of light, and m is the mass of the particle. This equation can be
derived from the relativistic definitions of the energy and momentum of a particle. The above equation
tells us that the total energy of a particle is a combination of its mass energy and its momentum energy
(which is not necessarily related to its mass). When a particle is at rest (p = 0), this general equation
reduces down to the familiar E = mc2. In contrast, for a particle with no mass (m = 0), the general
equation reduces down to E = pc. Since photons (particles of light) have no mass, they must
obey E = pc and therefore get all of their energy from their momentum.
Now there is an interesting additional effect contained in the general equation. If a particle has no mass
(m = 0) and is at rest (p = 0), then the total energy is zero (E = 0). But an object with zero energy and
zero mass is nothing at all. Therefore, if an object with no mass is to physically exist, it can never be at
rest. Such is the case with light. Furthermore, if the object travels at some speed v that is less than the
universal speed limit c, we can always choose a reference frame traveling along with the object so that
the object will be at rest in this reference frame. Therefore, an object that can never be at rest must
always travel at the universal speed limit c, because this speed has the interesting property that once
an object goes a speed c in one reference frame, it goes the speed c in all reference frames. In
summary, all objects with no mass can never be at rest and must travel at speed c in all reference
frames. Light is such an object, and the universal speed limit c is named the speed of light in its honor.
But light is not the only massless object. Gluons and the hypothetical gravitons are also massless, and
therefore travel at speed c in all frames.
How can an object have momentum without mass? It can do this if it is a wave. A wave transports
momentum via its waving motion and not by physically transporting an object with mass. "Momentum"
is the directional property of an object in motion that describes its ability to influence another object
upon impact. An object with high momentum (such as a truck) can greatly influence the object it collides
with (such as a barrel). If a giant water wave collides with a barrel, it can also influence the barrel to
move. The water wave therefore carries momentum even though it has no mass. The water itself has
Bangued, Abra
mass, but the wave has no mass. A water wave is not a packet of water traveling along. In fact, the
water that the wave is traveling through stays more or less in one place. Rather, the wave is a rippling
domino-effect of motion. As another example, consider a long jump rope held taught at both ends by
two girls. If one girl shakes her end of the rope violently enough to send a wave down the rope to the
other girl, the wave can jerk the other girl. The rope has not transported any mass, but it still carries
momentum through its waving motion. In this way, waves can have no mass but still carry momentum.
In addition to being a particle, light is also a wave. This allows it to carry momentum, and therefore
energy, without having mass.

Physics 1

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Physics 1

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Physics 1

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

DIVINE WORD COLLEGE OF BANGUED

You might also like