PHY3105 MODERN PHYSICS
Tutorial 1
Chapter: Relativity
Special relativity
1. If the speed of light were smaller than it is, would relativistic phenomena be more or less
conspicuous than they are now?
2. Why are the consequences of special relativity like time dilation, length contraction etc.,
are not appeared in daily observations?
3. Does the postulate of special theory of relativity that speed of light in vacuum is constant,
holds for inertial frames only?
Time dilation
4. An observer on a spacecraft moving at 0.700c relative to the earth finds that a car takes
40.0 min to make a trip. How long does the trip take to the driver of the car? (Ans.=28.56
mins)
5. How fast must a spacecraft travel relative to the earth for each day on the spacecraft to
correspond to 2 days on the earth? (Ans.=2.6 × 108 m/s)
6. The positive muon, an unstable particle, lives on average 2.20 × 10-6 s (measured in its own
frame of reference) before decaying. If such a particle is moving, with respect to the
laboratory, with a speed of 0.900c, what average lifetime is measured in the laboratory?
(Ans. = 5.05 × 10-6 s, 1.36 km)
7. A certain particle has a lifetime of 1.00 10-7 s when measured at rest. How far does it go
before decaying if its speed is 0.99c when it is created? (Ans. = 210 m)
Doppler effect
8. A galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major is receding from the earth at 15,000 km/s. If one
of the characteristic wavelengths of the light the galaxy emits is 550 nm, what is the
corresponding wavelength measured by astronomers on the earth? (Ans. = 578 nm)
9. Electromagnetic radiation from a star is observed with an earth-based telescope. The star
is moving away from the earth with a speed of 0.57c. If the radiation has a frequency of
8.64 × 1014 Hz in the rest frame of the star, what is the frequency measured by an observer
on earth? (Ans. = 4.52 × 1014 Hz)
10. How fast must you be approaching a red traffic light ( = 675 nm) for it to appear yellow
( = 575 nm)? Give your answer in terms of speed of light. (Ans.= 0.159c)
Length contraction
11. An astronaut whose height on the earth is exactly 6 ft is lying parallel to the axis of a
spacecraft moving at 0.90c relative to the earth. (a) What is his height as measured by an
observer in the same spacecraft? (b) By an observer on the earth? (Ans= (a) 6 ft, (b) 2.6 ft.)
12. An astronaut, using a meter stick that is at rest relative to a cylindrical spacecraft, measures
the length and diameter of the spacecraft to be 82 and 21 m respectively. The spacecraft
moves with a constant speed of v = 0.95c relative to the Earth. What are the dimensions of
the spacecraft, as measured by an observer on Earth? (Ans. = 26 m, 21 m)
Relativistic momentum, mass and energy
13. The particle accelerator at Stanford University is three kilometers long and accelerates
electrons to a speed of 0.999 999 999 7c, which is very nearly equal to the speed of light.
Find the magnitude of the relativistic momentum of an electron that emerges from the
accelerator, and compare it with the nonrelativistic value. (Mass of electron = 9.1 × 10 -31
kg). (Ans. = 4 × 104)
14. At what speed does the kinetic energy of a particle equal its rest energy?
15. An electron (mass = 9.1 × 10-31 kg) is accelerated to a speed of 0.9995c in a particle
accelerator. Determine the electron’s (a) rest energy, (b) total energy, and (c) kinetic energy
in MeV (Ans. = 0.5 MeV, 16.2 MeV, 15.7 MeV)
16. Find the correct relativistic formula for kinetic energy, KE = ( – 1) mc2 starting from the
relativistic form of the Newton’s second law of motion.
17. Verify that v/c = pc/E.
General Relativity
18. “Newton’s gravity is not as good as Einstein’s gravity”. Give your comments on this
statement.