speed of light problem: evaluate at 90% speed of light

K

kittiecs

New member
Joined
Jul 2, 2007
Messages
12
The expression square root c^2 -v^2/square root^2 (c is the speed of light and v is the speed of the traveling body) gives the aging rate compared to the time spent on earth.

A. Suppose you are traveling at 90% the speed of light. That means that your velocity, v would be equal to 0.9c. Substitute 0.9c inot this expression for v and simplify.

I started with square root 90%-0.9c/square root c^2 and could not figure out where to finish and I am not sure this is right either.

thank you,
Kittie
 
kittiecs said:
The expression square root c^2 -v^2/square root^2....
Click to expand...
I'm sorry, but there is at least one typo in the above, and the lack of grouping symbols makes (correct) interpretation very difficult. Please reply with clarification.

Thank you! :D

Eliz.
 
kittiecs said:
How do I post grouping symbols.
Click to expand...
Hmmm... If your keyboard doesn't have parentheses, then it probably doesn't have brackets or curly-braces, either, and the links to articles on formatting (in the "Read Before Posting" thread) won't be of much use.... :shock:

Maybe you could just pick a non-numerical character that your keyboard does have, and tell us that you're using that as parentheses...? :?:

For instance, since you can't type "sqrt(x^2 + 3)", etc, maybe you could use something else, like "sqrt?x^2 + 3?", with everything between the question marks being inside the radical. :idea:

Hope that helps! :D

Eliz.
 
The expression "sqrt (c^2 -v^2/sqrt^2 ) (c is the speed of light and v is the speed of the traveling body) gives the aging rate compared to the time spent on earth.

A. Suppose you are traveling at 90% the speed of light. That means that your velocity, v would be equal to 0.9c. Substitute 0.9c into this expression for v and simplify.

I started with sqrt(90%-0.9c/sqrt c^2 )and could not figure out where to finish and I am not sure this is right either.
the expression appears as a fraction
 
kittiecs said:
The expression "sqrt (c^2 -v^2/sqrt^2 ...There is something wrong with that)


(c is the speed of light and v is the speed of the traveling body) gives the aging rate compared to the time spent on earth.

A. Suppose you are traveling at 90% the speed of light. That means that your velocity, v would be equal to 0.9c. Substitute 0.9c into this expression for v and simplify.

I started with sqrt(90%-0.9c/sqrt c^2 )and could not figure out where to finish and I am not sure this is right either.
the expression appears as a fraction
Click to expand...

You really need to be careful about the problem you are posting. You should at least read it after you have posted to figure out whether you have posted it correctly.

Thanks to Lorentz and Einstein - I know the correct equation you are trying to refer to:

T = sqrt[(c^2-v^2)/c^2] * To

where you want to evaluate sqrt[(c^2-v^2)/c^2] for v = 0.9 * c

sqrt[(c^2-v^2)/c^2]

= sqrt[{c^2-(0.9c)^2}/c^2]

= sqrt[{c^2 - 0.81c^2}/c^2]

= sqrt[{0.19 c^2}/c^2]

= sqrt[0.19].....................finish it..



=
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top