A spaceship moves at a velocity ? = 0.8? toward a planet and
shoots a laser cannon
same direction. What velocity does an observer on the planet for
the light particles measure
coming at him from the laser cannon? Explain and use the Lorentz
transformation to
confirm your reasoning.
The speed of light is a universal constant, and hence the observer on earth will observe the protons approaching him at the speed of light, .
The formula for velocity addition with respect to a stationary observer is
where is the velocity of the spaceship and is the velocity of the beam with respect to the spaceship, i.e the speed of light .
Putting in our values, we can solve the for the first equation.
Hence, the observed velocity is the speed of light.
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