Simple Nature - Light and Matter

frequencies in the burst differed by no more than 2 seconds outof a total time in flight on the order of ten billion years!Discussion QuestionsA A person in a spaceship moving at 99.99999999% of the speedof light relative to Earth shines a flashlight forward through dusty air, sothe beam is visible. What does she see? What would it look like to anobserver on Earth?B A question that students often struggle with is whether time andspace can really be distorted, or whether it just seems that way. Comparewith optical illusions or magic tricks. How could you verify, for instance,that the lines in the figure are actually parallel? Are relativistic effects thesame, or not?C On a spaceship moving at relativistic speeds, would a lecture seemeven longer and more boring than normal?D Mechanical clocks can be affected by motion. For example, it wasa significant technological achievement to build a clock that could sailaboard a ship and still keep accurate time, allowing longitude to be determined.How is this similar to or different from relativistic time dilation?E Figure q from page 392, depicting the collision of two nuclei at theRHIC accelerator, is reproduced below. What would the shapes of the twonuclei look like to a microscopic observer riding on the left-hand nucleus?To an observer riding on the right-hand one? Can they agree on what ishappening? If not, why not — after all, shouldn’t they see the same thingif they both compare the two nuclei side-by-side at the same instant intime?Discussion question Bv / Discussion question E:contraction.colliding nuclei show relativistic lengthF If you stick a piece of foam rubber out the window of your car whiledriving down the freeway, the wind may compress it a little. Does it makesense to interpret the relativistic length contraction as a type of strainthat pushes an object’s atoms together like this? How does this relate todiscussion question E?Section 7.2 Distortion of Space and Time 397