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(Quick question.)
Harold and Henrietta are dining tête-à-tête
in the dining room of a spaceship moving forwards
with speed v=0.9c.
Harold is facing the rear of the spaceship and
Henrietta, opposite him, is facing the front.
At one point in the conversation, they both agree to
simultaneously raise their wine glasses. The raised glasses
are separated by exactly across the table,
as perceived by Harold and Henrietta.
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Draw a diagram of Harold and Henrietta, the glasses,
and the spaceship.
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To an observer outside the spaceship, looking into the
window of the dining room as it whizzes by, what is the
separation of the two glasses? Express your result in cm.
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According to the same external observer, which glass is
raised first? Harold's? Henrietta's? Or are they both raised
at the same time?
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Describe in your own words, succintly, two astrophysical
situations in which relativistic physics
exerts a detectable influence over orbital motions.
Astronomy 7
Fri Sep 17 15:48:25 PDT 1999