You are in a jet helicopter traveling horizontally at 180 m/s relative to Earth.

Question

You are in a jet helicopter traveling horizontally at 180 m/s relative to Earth. At one instant you observe the light pulses from two lightning stripes, one directly ahead of the helicopter and one directly behind it.

(a) Can you say that the strikes occurred simulataneously in your reference frame?

(b) How would your answer change if you were instead hovering at rest relative to the ground when you observed the two pulses?

(c) How would your answer change if the pilot told you that the two strikes occurred at equal distances from the helicopter in the helicopter's reference frame?

(d) Would an observer on the ground agree with your answers to parts a, b, and c?

Please answer and explain the answers.

Explanation / Answer

Can you say that the strikes occurred simulataneously in your reference frame?

Ans: With reference to the helicopter frame the two events are simultaneous as they are observed to occur at the same instant

How would your answer change if you were instead hovering at rest relative to the ground when you observed the two pulses?

Ans: The events are simultaneous with reference to the helicopter frame. The observe in the reference frame does not know the frame is moving and hence the observation does not change if the frame is moving or at rest.

How would your answer change if the pilot told you that the two strikes occurred at equal distances from the helicopter in the helicopter's reference frame?

Ans: With the above knowledge the observation need to be corrected. The front one happened at a later period compared to the back one as the light from the front one traveled less distance compared to the back one but arrived at the same time.

Would an observer on the ground agree with your answers to parts a, b, and c?

Ans: NO, the ground observe will the events differently as the time interval measured by the ground observer would be different since the observer is at rest.

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