A straight line isn’t always straight, and triangles aren’t always planar. This leads us to conclude that space and time don’t behave as expected when reference frames are accelerated. This clashes with our knowledge of classical geometry (or Euclidean geometry), where a circle of a fixed radius has to have a fixed circumference. Also, the circumference of the disc should be measured differently by two observers who are at different distances from the center, due to relativistic length foreshortening, although the radius would be the same for everyone. Hence, according to our knowledge from Special relativity, the points moving faster should experience a slower clock. On a rotating disc, the outermost point is moving faster with respect to the points closer to the center, with the center always being stationary. Move the slider to make the merry-go-round rotate. Now, how would three different people, standing at blue, red and grey points, measure the circumference? The rotational speed can be such that the outermost edge of the disc can almost but not completely reach the speed of light. Taking a break from the two friends, consider a huge merry-go-round that is rotating around Also notice, as the speed of the tube approaches the speed of light, it stops moving through time, as the light can never reach the other point, and its size becomes zero due to both the end points coinciding. The friend on the spaceship still views it to be stationary, as seen on the tube on the left. Note that all this is from the reference frame of the outsider. This leads to apparent length of the tube being shorter the faster it is moving (the foreshortening effect), and the tube itself appearing to travel slower in time. Push that gas pedal on the ship and notice that as the tube moves faster and faster, the photon is able to cover a lesser vertical distance.
The left tube is from the frame of reference of the traveller, while the right one is as seen by the outsider.įrom the point of emission at the origin, the photon can only reach the edge of the dotted arc in one second, since it has a fixed velocity. light takes 1 second to reach from one end to another, if the tube is stationary). Why do fast moving objects move through less time? Consider a huge a photon tube (basically, a tube with a light torch), and place this on the spaceship of one of our
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