ELECTROMAGNETIC THEORY 2020-21

TUTORIAL NO. 3:

Space Time Diagrams & Velocity Addition

1. Consider a train moving with a speed v along the x axis. The compart-
ment has a bulb fixed in the center which is switched on which is event
C. Event A is the light reaching the back end of the compartment while
event B is the light reaching the front end of the compartment.
Consider three frames- frame S which is fixed to the platform, frame S 0
fixed to the train and frame S 00 which is fixed to a racing car traveling
with speed v1 > v along the x direction. In the spacetime diagram for
S, draw the two events A & B and determine their order as seen by
observers in all three frames.

2. TRAIN-RAIN PARADOX A train that is 100 m long in its rest frame

is traveling at half the speed of light with respect to the ground and
passes through a tunnel that is 100 meters long. The exact moment
that the train’s back end disappears into the tunnel, a flash of rain
falls everywhere at the same time. Does the train get wet? (For the
purposes of this problem, the rain falls instantaneously fast and lasts
only for an infinitesimally small period of time.) The train driver thinks
that to him, the tunnel is moving and will contract in length and will
not contain the train, so it will get wet. The people on the grass think
that to them, the train contracts in length, fits in the tunnel just fine,
and will not get wet. Who is right and why? Derive all corresponding
coordinates and lengths in both frames to back up your answer.

3. In an inertial frame S, two spacecraft, A and B, are travelling in opposite

directions along straight, parallel trajectories separated by a distance d.
The speed of each spacecraft in S is c/2. An observer in S sees that when
the spacecraft are at the point of closest approach, one of the spacecraft,

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 say Spacecraft A, releases a packet with a speed 3c4 as observed by the
observer in S. At what angle must the package be aimed by the astro-
naut in A so that the package is received by the other spacecraft? What
is the speed of the package as observed by the astronaut in Spacecraft A?

4. A police car moving at 0.6c is chasing a car with some criminals which is
moving at 0.75c, both speeds relative to an observer on the ground. The
police fire a bullet at the criminals, with a speed 0.2c (relative to the
gun). Will it hit the criminals? Do this in both the police and ground
frame.