One serious shortcoming of the length-contraction theory is that relativists draw three different conclusions from the equation. Some believe that the traveler notices no changes in his vicinity while others predict that he will. Others believe that a stationary observer will notice changes of far away objects. Yet others believe that the contraction is not just an issue of measurement and perceptions, but that it is a real phenomenon (Fig. 1). a. The traveler has trouble measuring lengths and distances in his direction of motion: “ an observer travelling at the speed of light …would measure all distances in the direction of motion as 0.” “ An observer in motion relative to an object measures the length of that object along the direction of motion to be contracted when compared to the length measured by an observer at rest relative to the object.” “ An observer moving with respect to an object will observe it to be contracted along the direction of motion.”
Posted on: Wed, 10 Jul 2013 09:24:01 +0000
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