Special Relativity

Special Relativity
Doç.Dr. İ.Alper DİZDAR,Dr. E.Ulaş.SAKA

March 31, 2021
Problem 1. The distance from New York to Los Angeles is about 5000 km and should take
about 50 h in a car driving at 100 km/h. (a) How much shorter than 5000 km is the distance
according to the car travelers? (b) How much less than 50 h do they age during the trip?
Problem 2. How fast must an object move before its length appears to be contracted to
one-half its proper length?
Problem 3. An astronaut must journey to a distant planet, which is 200 light-years from
Earth. What speed will be necessary if the astronaut wishes to age only 10 years during the
round trip?
Problem 4. High-energy particles are observed in laboratories by photographing the tracks

they leave in certain detectors; the length of the track depends on the speed of the particle
and its lifetime. A particle moving at 0.995c leaves a track 1.25 mm long. What is the
proper lifetime of the particle?
Problem 5. Two spaceships approach the Earth from opposite directions. According to
an observer on the Earth, ship A is moving at a speed of 0.753c and ship B at a speed of
0.851c. What is the velocity of ship A as observed from ship B? Of ship B as observed from
ship A?
Problem 6. Rocket A leaves a space station with a speed of 0.826c. Later, rocket B leaves
in the same direction with a speed of 0.635c. What is the velocity of rocket A as observed
from rocket B?
Problem 7. One of the strongest emission lines observed from distant galaxies comes from
hydrogen and has a wavelength of 122 nm (in the ultraviolet region). (a) How fast must a
galaxy be moving away from us in order for that line to be observed in the visible region at
366 nm? (b) What would be the wavelength of the line if that galaxy were moving toward
us at the same speed?
Problem 8. A physics professor claims in court that the reason he went through the red
light (λ = 650nm) was that, due to his motion, the red color was Doppler shifted to green
(λ = 550nm). How fast was he going?
Problem 9. Derive the Lorentz velocity transformations for vx and vz .
1
Problem 10. Observer O fires a light beam in the y direction (vy = c). Use the Lorentz
velocity transformation to find vx and vy and show that O0 also measures the value c for the
speed of light. Assume that O0 moves relative to O with velocity u in the x direction.
Problem 11. A light bulb at point x in the frame of reference of O blinks on and off at
intervals ∆t = t2 − t1 . Observer O0 , moving relative to O at speed u, measures the interval
to be ∆t0 = t02 − t01 . Use the Lorentz transformation expressions to derive the time dilation
expression relating t and t0 .
Problem 12. A neutral K meson at rest decays into two π mesons, which travel in opposite
directions along the x axis with speeds of 0.828c. If instead the K meson were moving in
the positive x direction with a velocity of 0.486c, what would be the velocities of the two π
mesons?
Problem 13. A rod in the reference frame of observer O makes an angle of 31◦ with the x
axis. According to observer O0 who is in motion in the x direction with velocity u, the rod
makes an angle of 46◦ with the x axis. Find the velocity u.
Problem 14. According to observer O, two events occur separated by a time interval ∆t =
+0.465µs and at locations separated by ∆x = +53.4m. (a) According to observer O0 , who
is in motion relative to O at a speed of 0.762c in the positive x direction, what is the time
interval between the two events? (b) What is the spatial separation between the two events,
according to O0 ?
Problem 15. According to observer O a blue flash occurs at xb = 10.4m tb = 0.124µs,

and a red flash occurs at xr = 23.6m when tr = 0.138µs. According to observer O0 who is
in motion relative to O at velocity u, the two flashes appear to be simultaneous. Find the
velocity u.
Problem 16. The muon is an unstable particle that spontaneously decays into an electron
and two neutrinos. If the number of muons at t = 0 is N0 , the number N at time t is
N = N0 e−t/τ (1)
where τ = 2.20µs is the mean lifetime of the muon. Suppose the muons move at speed
0.95c.a)What is the observed lifetime of the muons?.b)How many muons remain after trav-
eling a distance of 3.0 km?
Problem C. onsider the relativistic form of Newton’s Second Law. Show that when F is
2
parallel to v ,F = m(1 − vc2 )−3/2 dv
dt
where m is the mass of the object and v is its speed.

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Special Relativity

Doç.Dr. İ.Alper DİZDAR,Dr. E.Ulaş.SAKA

Problem 4. High-energy particles are observed in laboratories by photographing the tracks

Problem 9. Derive the Lorentz velocity transformations for vx and vz .

Problem 15. According to observer O a blue flash occurs at xb = 10.4m tb = 0.124µs,

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