Hello
I am Katy Wilson and I am taking AP Physics (with calculus) at
Honey, I shrunk DAY!
Length
Contraction is a very small, but very significant subject in the realm of
physics. This website deals with the idea that length is not dependent on how
long something actually is.
Linkth is
relative, so is spelling
The contraction
of length can be explained like this…
From
Earth, if DAY was moving extremely
fast, he would look like he shrunk. From his point of view, the fast-moving
Earth and the rest of space seems to shrink!
for those who
arent so hip on animations
EXAMPLE PROBLEM:
How fast would DAY have to be moving to fit in a hypothetical closet in space
that has a length of 140 centimeters?
L moving
= L proper x b
b= (1- v2/c2)1/2
L proper is the initial length
of DAY, which is approximately 170 centimeters.
So here
goes… 140 cm = 170 cm * (1- v2/c2)1/2
19600/28900 cm = (1-
v2/c2)
-c2
* (19600/28900 – 1) = (- v2/c2) * -c2
c * (1 – 19600/28900)1/2 = v
.57c = v
One of
those fill in the blank websites
But you know
what’s funny…DAY thinks the closet is getting smaller because that’s what he
sees, how strange!
For more fun with
length contraction, visit these great places to be:
Einsteins theory
of special relativity!
History of the sport:
Sources:
http://webs.mn.catholic.edu.au/physics/emery/hsc_space_continued.htm#history
http://www.softcom.net/users/greebo/einstein.htm