Question

A spaceship travels toward the Earth at a speed of 0.97c. The occupants of the ship are standing with their torsos parallel to the direction of travel. According to Earth observers, they are about 0.50 m tall and 0.50 m wide. Calculate what the occupants’ height and width according to the others on the spaceship?

Answer 1

Answer:

Explanation:

We shall apply length contraction einstein's relativistic formula to calculate the length observed by observer on the earth . For the observer , increased length will be observed for an observer on the earth

$L=\frac{.5}{\sqrt{1-(\frac{.97c}{c})^2 } }$

$L=\frac{.5}{.24}$

L= 2.05

The length will appear to be 2.05 m . and width will appear to be .5 m  to the observer on the spaceship. . It is so because it is length which is moving parallel to the direction of travel. Width will remain unchanged.