ASTRON 2B03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Lorentz Factor, Infinitive, Length Contraction
1 Dec 2016
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Special relativity no acceleration (rest or constand speed) Nothing with mass can move at speed of light two observers moving at 99% of c relative to each other. Each observer, using their own ruler and clock, measures the speed of light to be same. Only way for these two to observe the same light speed is for off things to be ahppening to rulers and clocks. Thought experiment: measure the time taken for light to travel to a mirror and back: Now measure someone on a very fast moving skateboard did the same thing. Since it took a longer path, it assume it takes longer. So: the same event (light going up and coming back down) appears to take longer (from our frame of reference) when the skateboarder is moving. The fast he is moving, the longer this event seems to take. We say his clock appears to be moving slowly (time dilation) moving clocks run slowly!
