Wednesday, 29 June 2016

special relativity - Energy Conservation Dilemma


Assume that a man is travelling in a space ship at a certain relativistic speed with respect to a man at rest at some point in space, such that 3 minutes in the ship is equal to 5 minutes for the person at rest.


Also assume that the man in the ship has a lighter which contains gas of a certain amount such that the lighter can be lit for 5 minutes .


Now if the man in the space ship lights the lighter for 3 minutes, then he would have 2 minutes' worth of gas left, but the stationary observer would have seen light emitted for about 5 minutes (since 3 in that space ship = 5 minutes for the stationary observer)



How is it possible for the stationary observer to see light for 5 minutes? And in this case, how is energy conserved?




No comments:

Post a Comment

Understanding Stagnation point in pitot fluid

What is stagnation point in fluid mechanics. At the open end of the pitot tube the velocity of the fluid becomes zero.But that should result...