Scientists are planning to put Ruffs the dog on the first spaceship capable of t

Question

Scientists are planning to put Ruffs the dog on the first spaceship capable of traveling at speeds near the speed of light. In the interest of saving space, the ship designers have made the cabin of the ship very small, so that Ruffs can barely fit inside. The dog will still be comfortable, they reason, because he will be Lorentz contracted during the trip. What is the best response to this reasoning?

Select one:

a. The reasoning is not sound, because Ruffs will be Lorentz contracted relative to the Earth, but not relative to the ship

b. The ship, not Ruffs, will be Lorentz contracted; the cabin definitely needs to be enlarged to take this into account.

c. The reasoning is sound, but Ruffs will only be comfortable as long as the ship is moving at high speeds.

d. The fact that Ruffs will be Lorentz contracted will not make him more comfortable. While length contracted, he looks smaller, but in reality he is still full size.

Explanation / Answer

option a is correct

because lorentz contraction is valid if velocity of body is is comparable to speed of light with respect to observer. that means dog will be contracted with repect to observer on earth but not for ship as ship is also moving with dog at same speed.

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