1> You are in a windowless car in an exceptionally smooth train moving at consta

Question

1> You are in a windowless car in an exceptionally smooth train moving at constant velocity. Is there any physical experiment you can do in the train car to determine whether you are moving? Explain.

2> If you were on a spaceship traveling at 0.6c away from a star, at what speed would the starlight pass you?

3> If you were traveling away from Earth at speed 0.6c, would you notice a change in your heartbeat?   Would your mass, height, or waistline change? What would observers on Earth using telescopes say about you?

Explanation / Answer

1.

No ,Since Windowlees car is an exceptionally smooth train moving at constant velocity is an inertial reference frame and all laws of physics are same in any inertial frame.So it impossible to for you to say you are moving or not.

2.

Starlight would pass you at a speed of Light i.e c. Since speed of light is constant in any reference frame .

3.

You would not notice a change in your heartbeat ,mass ,waistline or height.No matter how fast you are moving relative to earth ,you are at rest in your own reference frame.Thus you would not notice any changes in your own characteristics.

To observers on earth you are moving at 0.6c

r=sqrt[1-(V/c)2]=sqrt[1-(0.6c/c)2] =0.8

To the observers it would appear that your heart beat is slowed by a factor of 0.8. ,and your mass is increased by a factor 1/0.8 =1.25 ,and your waistline is decreased by a factor of 0.8 ,and your height would be unchanged.

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