A pole vaulter holds a pole of length L (when measured at rest). He carries the

Question

A pole vaulter holds a pole of length L (when measured at rest). He carries the pole and moves at a very high speed v towards a garage whose door is open. The depth of the garage is also L. Now, he makes a bet with a guy who operates the garage door, which we assume can react instantly to his command. The garage operator claims that he can shut the pole completely inside the garage at some point by closing the garage door --- after all, the pole has shrunken due to length contraction, while the depth of the garage remains the same. The pole vaulter, on the other hand, thinks that's impossible --- it's the garage that's moving (according to him), not the pole. So the garage should be shorter than his pole, making it impossible for the pole to be completely shut inside the garage at any moment.

So there lies the paradox. Who is right and who is wrong? And why?

Explanation / Answer

well, both are wrong, thats really impossible because over all length contraction is nothing but an illusion which is completely dependent on speed of light. (as per special theory of relativity). It appears that length is decreasd but actually it remains the same.

But, APART FROM the real world if we condiser the theory of relativity to be happening exactly as it says in real world then

Operator is right and pole vaulter is wrong.

Reason: it is vaulter who is running wrt opertor so length of pole will be decreased with relation

L = Lo sqrt(1- (v/c)^2).

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