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  1. Which of the following statements about the Michelson-Morley experiment is correct?
    1. The physics world was immediately convinced of the null result on ether.
    2. The interferometer measured large effects from the ether, showing that the velocity of light changes depending on motion with respect to the ether.
    3. Changing the angle of the interferometer produced different results.
    4. They found that the interference effects of the ether were not dependent on the direction of motion of the interferometer.
  2. John is in an inertial frame F and Jack is in a frame F' moving relative to F in the x-direction at a constant velocity v. John and Jack each hold a 1-m stick with them oriented in the x-direction. Which one of the following statements best describes the situation?
    • John measures Jack's stick as shorter than his own
    • Jack measures John's stick as shorter than his own
    • The time it takes John to measure Jack's stick does not factor into John's calculation
    • Both a and b
    • All of the above

Question on Michelson –Morely experiment

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#1 Swimmers Question

  • Assume two equally fast swimmers (speed = c) are in a race. One swims from the starting point O to A and back, and the other swims from O to B and back. There is a current in the river in the direction of O to B, with current speed V. Which swimmer wins?

O

A

B

L

L

V

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#2 Derivation of Dilation and Contraction

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#3 Section 2.5, Problem 19

A rocket ship carrying passengers blasts off to go from

New York to Los Angeles, a distance of about 5000 km.

(a) How fast must the rocket ship go to have its own

length shortened by 1%?

(b) Ignore effects of general

relativity and determine how much time the rocket

ship’s clock and the ground-based clocks differ when

the rocket ship arrives in Los Angeles.

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#4 Section 2.12, Problem 67

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#5 Section 2.10, Problem 48

An astronaut is said to have tried to get out of a traffic violation for running a red light (4.61x1014 Hz) by telling the judge that the light appeared green (5.55x1014 Hz) to her as she passed by in her high-powered transport. If this is true, how fast was the astronaut going? Would the astronaut get a speeding ticket if the speed limit was 100 km/h?