Scribd
Upload
403 views2 pages

SPH4U Relativity Assignment

1) Muons created in the upper atmosphere can reach the Earth's surface due to time dilation from special relativity. A muon traveling at 0.99782c would take 2.6 microseconds to travel 10 km in its frame of reference, matching the time needed to reach Earth. 2) Relativistic mass increases as an object's speed approaches the speed of light. This implies that the maximum speed is the speed of light, since infinite mass would be required for infinite acceleration above that speed. 3) For a spaceship 100m long to fit inside a 90m hangar due to length contraction, it must travel at a speed where its length contracts to 90m in the hangar frame. However

Uploaded by

Matthew Greeson
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
403 views2 pages

SPH4U Relativity Assignment

1) Muons created in the upper atmosphere can reach the Earth's surface due to time dilation from special relativity. A muon traveling at 0.99782c would take 2.6 microseconds to travel 10 km in its frame of reference, matching the time needed to reach Earth. 2) Relativistic mass increases as an object's speed approaches the speed of light. This implies that the maximum speed is the speed of light, since infinite mass would be required for infinite acceleration above that speed. 3) For a spaceship 100m long to fit inside a 90m hangar due to length contraction, it must travel at a speed where its length contracts to 90m in the hangar frame. However

Uploaded by

Matthew Greeson
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

SPH4U Relativity Assignment

1. Muons A stunning confirmation of special relativity arises from the fact that μ-mesons
(muons), created by the collision of cosmic rays with the gasses of the upper
atmosphere (about 10 km above sea level), can be observed at ground level. Muons
are unstable subatomic particles which decay after a mean lifetime of 2.2×10 -6 s.

a) Assuming that Cedric the muon travels at 0.99782 c, then without taking relativity into
account, how far would it travel before it decays?

b) Taking relativity into account, show that the 10 km voyage, from Cedric’s viewpoint, is
exactly the length you computed above – meaning that Cedric in fact makes it to Earth’s
surface.

c) How long does Cedric’s trek down to Earth last in its own frame of reference?

d) How long does Cedric’s trek last in an Earth-based observer’s frame of reference?

e) Show that Cedric’s much-enhanced lifespan (from an Earth-observer’s reference


frame) gives him exactly enough time to cover the 10 km down to Earth’s surface.

2. Regardless of your textbook’s insistence that relativistic momentum is a more correct


quantity than relativistic mass, the latter is nonetheless useful, and is given by
mo
m , where mo is the object’s rest mass -- its mass as determined in the
1  ( vc ) 2
object’s rest frame.

a) What happens to the relativistic mass of an object as its speed approaches c).

b) Given that inertial mass determines an object’s tendency to resist acceleration, show
that the above expression for relativistic mass implies that the maximum speed for any
material object is c.

c) What speed must be given to an object so that its relativistic mass is double its rest
mass?

d) How much work must be done on an mo = 1.0 kg object to raise its speed from 0.999
c to 0.9999 c? Hint: W = Ek.

e) When a particle, travelling at 0.999 c, collides with a stationary target and comes to
rest, what becomes of its excess relativistic mass? Hint: refer to the intro to question 1
above, or look at your physics textbook’s cover.
3. Ship-in-Hangar Paradox A space ship is 100 m long, but the hangar is only 90 m
long. “No problem!” declares Ol’ Bill, the hangar operator. “Just drive that ship into the
hangar at relativistic speed! Length contraction will shorten ‘er just enough so as she fits
in! Then close the hangar doors!”

a) At what speed must the ship be going so as to fit into the hangar from Ol’ Bill’s (Earth
observer) viewpoint?

b) Ol’ Zeke, the space jockey driving the ship, sees an alarming situation as Ol’ Bill
attempts to close the door. “The dang hangar’s REALLY too short now! We’re all gonna
DIE!!” How long is the hangar from the Zeke’s viewpoint?

c) It appears that Bill and Zeke have conflicting views of reality. Who’s right, and who’s
wrong, or, if both of them are wrong, then explain how. Hint: for the doors to be able to
be closed, both ends of the ship must be inside the hangar at the same time, but
simultaneity is relative to an observer’s frame of reference…

4. Flushed with success at solving the mystery of the fake gold crown, Archimedes tries
to pull a fast one (haw haw!) on King Hieron, and gives the hapless king what looks like
a huge cube of gold. It has the density of gold (D gold = 19.3 g/cm3), and is in the form of a
cube with side 1.0 m. But wait! It’s actually a long rectangular prism of aluminum
(aluminum = 2.7 g/cm3), painted gold and moving along its long axis at relativistic speed!
The question is, how fast is it moving and what is its proper length?

5. A space tourism company’s sleazy advertisement whose aim is to dupe ignorant (i.e.
– non physics educated) people into a gruelling 15 year interstellar mining/slavery
mission reads “…and on our fine relativistic ships, your lunch hour will last a whole
week!”

a) From whose viewpoint would a lunch hour last a whole week? How long would the
lunch hour last for the people actually eating lunch?

b) How fast must the ship be travelling to achieve this?

c) How far will it get on its 15-year mission? Assume that 15 years elapses on the
ship’s clock, and then work out the proper length travelled.

d) How many years will elapse back on Earth during the ship’s absence?

6. 1 Calorie is 4.184 × 103 J. Interestingly, the “tonne of TNT” is also a unit of energy.
Since one gram of TNT (the explosive trinitrotoluene) releases a modest energy of 1000
Calories, then
a) Work out the number of joules for a Megatonne (MT = 10 9 kg) of TNT
b) How many grams of matter must be converted totally to energy (using a
thermonuclear bomb or perhaps a novel antimatter weapon) to yield the energy output
of the world’s largest nuke (The Soviet-Era Tsar Bomba was tested at 50 MT!!).

You might also like

pFad - Phonifier reborn

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy