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Electromagnetic Theory 2019-20: Tutorial 3

This document contains problems related to electromagnetic theory and special relativity involving: 1) Drawing spacetime diagrams to analyze signals detected by detectors moving relative to an observer and determining if the signals were emitted simultaneously. 2) Analyzing the train-rain paradox scenario to determine whether a passing train will get wet based on the perspectives of different observers. 3) Calculating the angle and speed of a packet released from one spacecraft to be received by another spacecraft moving in opposite directions at a fraction of the speed of light. 4) Determining whether a bullet fired from a police car chasing criminals will hit the criminals based on their relative speeds. 5) Calculating the speed of light passing through a column

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Devender Kumar
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116 views

Electromagnetic Theory 2019-20: Tutorial 3

This document contains problems related to electromagnetic theory and special relativity involving: 1) Drawing spacetime diagrams to analyze signals detected by detectors moving relative to an observer and determining if the signals were emitted simultaneously. 2) Analyzing the train-rain paradox scenario to determine whether a passing train will get wet based on the perspectives of different observers. 3) Calculating the angle and speed of a packet released from one spacecraft to be received by another spacecraft moving in opposite directions at a fraction of the speed of light. 4) Determining whether a bullet fired from a police car chasing criminals will hit the criminals based on their relative speeds. 5) Calculating the speed of light passing through a column

Uploaded by

Devender Kumar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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ELECTROMAGNETIC THEORY 2019-20

TUTORIAL 3

Space Time Diagrams & Velocity Addition


1. Consider an observer O. She sends out two bursts of particles with speed v = 0.5 from
x = 0 at time t = −2 meters (In this problem, we use units with c = 1.). One burst
travels along the positive x direction and one along the −x direction. The particles
encounter detectors at x = ±2. After a delay of 0.5 m, the detector send a signal back
to x = 0 at v1 = 0.75. The observer O detects the signals at the same time.

a) Draw a spacetime diagram and show that the signals were emitted simultaneously
from the detectors.

b) Another observer O0 moves in a −x direction w.r.t. O with a speed v = 0.75. Draw


the spacetime diagram as seen by O0 and determine if the detectors emitted the signals
simultaneously or not. If not, which signal was sent first?

c) Compute the invariant interval ds2 for both O and O0 between the events at which
the detectors emitted the signals.

2. TRAIN-RAIN PARADOX A train that is 100 m long in its rest frame is traveling at
half the speed of light with respect to the ground and passes through a tunnel that
is 100 meters long. The exact moment that the train’s back end disappears into the
tunnel, a flash of rain falls everywhere at the same time. Does the train get wet?
(For the purposes of this problem, the rain falls instantaneously fast and lasts only
for an infinitesimally small period of time.) The train driver thinks that to him, the
tunnel is moving and will contract in length and will not contain the train, so it will
get wet. The people on the grass think that to them, the train contracts in length,
fits in the tunnel just fine, and will not get wet. Who is right and why? Derive all
corresponding coordinates and lengths in both frames to justify your answer.

3. In an inertial frame S, two spacecraft, A and B, are travelling in opposite directions


along straight, parallel trajectories separated by a distance d. The speed of each
spacecraft in S is c/2. An observer in S sees that when the spacecraft are at the
point of closest approach, one of the spacecraft, say Spacecraft A, releases a packet
with a speed 3c4
as observed by the observer in S. At what angle must the package
be aimed by the astronaut in A so that the package is received by the other space-
craft? What is the speed of the package as observed by the astronaut in Spacecraft A?

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4. A police car moving at 0.6c is chasing a car with some criminals which is moving at
0.75c, both speeds relative to an observer on the ground. The police fire a bullet at
the criminals, with a speed 0.2c (relative to the gun). Will it hit the criminals?

5. Fizeau’s experiment: Consider a light beam passing through a horizontal column of


water which is moving with a velocity v. The refractive index of water is n. Find the
speed of light in the lab frame when the light is travelling in the same direction as
the flow of water. If v c, what does this reduce to?

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