Imagine you are riding on a yacht in the ocean and traveling at 20 mph. You then

Question

Imagine you are riding on a yacht in the ocean and traveling at 20 mph. You then hit a golf ball at 100 mph from the deck of the yacht. You see the ball move away from you at 100 mph, while a person standing on a near by beach would observe your golf ball traveling at 120 mph (20 mph + 100 mph). Now imagine you are aboard the Hermes spacecraft traveling at 0.1c (1/10 the speed of light) past Mars and shine a laser from the front of the ship. You would see the light traveling at c (the speed of light) away from your ship. According to Einstein's special relativity, how fast will a person on Mars observe the light to be traveling? 0.1 c (1/10 the speed of light) c (the speed of light) 1.1c (c + 0.1c)

Explanation / Answer

c(the speed of light).

This is in accordance with Einstein's Special Relativity Theory which states that the speed of light is always constant irrespective of the reference frame and to account for it, time and length vary with different frame of references.

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