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The nearest starts to Earth are approximately 4.0 lightyears away. How fast woul

ID: 2111330 • Letter: T

Question

The nearest starts to Earth are approximately 4.0 lightyears away. How fast would you have to travel in a spaceship to cause that distance to shrink to 1.5 lightyears?

I get most of this, I'm having trouble (or doing something incorrect with the math).

Lp = 4.00 ly. therefore, if L = 1.50 ly, then

L =Lp sqrt 1 - v^2/c^2

L/Lp = sqrt 1 - v^2/c^2

0.375 = sqrt 1 - v^2/c^2

I tried squaring both sides and I'm messing something up from her to the end.

and end up with v/c = 0.927 or v = 0.927c WHICH IS THE ANSWER

I'm trying to square both sides and I keep coming up with 0.7 or 0.3. Thanks!

Explanation / Answer

I got correctly only

0.140625=1-v^2/c^2

v^2/c^2=0.859375

Now taking square root on both sides,

So v/c=0.927

So v=0.927c

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