Sunday, January 30, 2011

Mastering Physics: The Empire Strikes Back

(a=nb in the figure ).
Part A
How fast, relative to an observer, does an Empire ship have to travel for its markings to be confused with those of a Federation ship? Use c for the speed of light in a vacuum.


The starships of the Solar Federation are marked with the symbol of the Federation, a circle, whereas starships of the Denebian Empire are marked with the Empire's symbol, an ellipse whose major axis is n times its minor axis

 
 
 
 
Express your answer in terms of n and c.
ANSWER:


c\sqrt{1-\frac{1}{n^{2}}}
Correct



Posted by Gymnos at 6:39 PM
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3 comments:

  1. UnknownMarch 20, 2016 at 8:47 PM

    how???

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownDecember 11, 2016 at 5:35 AM

    Yeah I couldn't follow the Hints either.. how do you reach that answer? :^)

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownDecember 17, 2017 at 5:48 AM

    b = nb sqrt(1-u^2 / c^2)
    1 = n sqrt(1-u^2 / c^2)
    1/n = sqrt(1-u^2 / c^2)
    1/n^2 = 1-u^2 / c^2
    u^2 / c^2 = 1 - 1/n^2
    u/c = sqrt(1 - 1/n^2)
    u = c*sqrt(1 - 1/n^2)

    ReplyDelete

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