Question

A rod of length 1m is moving with speed v=0.6c along it's length. What is the percentage of length constriction

Answer 1

Explanation:

An object moving at a speed

v

relative to an observer will appear to contract from both frames of reference, though with the object's frame of reference it is the observer being contracted. This happens all the time but the speeds are always too slow to have any noticeable effect, only being noticeable at relativistic speeds.

Formula for length contraction is

L

=

L

0

√

1

−

v

2

c

2

where:

L

= new length (

m

)

L

0

= original length (

m

)

v

= speed of object (

m

s

−

1

)

c

= speed of light (

~

3.00

⋅

10

8

m

s

−

1

)

So,

L

=

√

1

−

(

0.6

c

)

2

c

2

=

√

1

−

0.6

2

=

√

1

−

0.36

=

√

0.64

=

0.8

m