StarleeHibits Posted March 13, 2004 Report Share Posted March 13, 2004 I'm having problems applying the Lorenz Length Contraction formulas to the following problem... ------------The Starship Azathoth is on a long-term voyage to the Orion Nebula at constant sub-light velocity. It is a massive mile-long deep space robotic exploration vessel. As it passes near the blue-giant star Betelgeuse, an alien probe measures the apparent length of the spacecraft to be only 1.8 bleerths (= six-tenths of a mile) long. How fast is the starship moving in terms of the speed of light c? Explain.------------ How do you do this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deamonstar Posted March 15, 2004 Report Share Posted March 15, 2004 the starship azathoth is travelling at 148,800 miles/sec. or 8/10ths or 80% the speed of light. the equation used is L=Lo x sqrt of 1-(v²/c²) where <LI>L=length in motion<LI>Lo=length at rest<LI>v=velocity of starship<LI>c=velocity of light the solution would then be v=c sqrt of 1-(L/Lo)² = 186,000m/s x sqrt of 1-(6/10m / 1m)² = 148,800m/s Pyrotex 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts