SRT tutorial week 1

To count for the bonus scheme the worked out solutions of this tutorial must be
handed in at the end of the tutorial session on Friday 15:30, or before that time.

1: For an observer at rest in a laboratory Newton’s second law is holding. Show by

derivation that Newton’s second law is then also holds to good approximation for
another observer who moves with a constant velocity v with respect to the observer in
the lab that is small with respect to the speed of light. Take for the other observers
space coordinate x0 with respect to that of the lab observer ~x0 = ~x + ~v t.

2: Show by derivation that Newton’s second law does not hold for an observer who is in
accelerated motion to an inertial observer (for whom the second law does hold). Take
for the coordinatex0 of the accelerated observer with respect to that of the inertial
observer ~x0 = ~x + ~a2 t2 , where a is the acceleration.

3: Why can one not conclude from the Michelson-Morley experiment that the speed of
light is the same for all inertial observers?
Why can one conclude from the Michelson-Morley experiment that the Galilei trans-
form cannot be correct?

4: Devise a way to synchronise clocks that are positioned on a fixed grid in space.

5: Calculate the velocity of a light clock with respect to an inertial observer at rest who
observes that the clock is ticking at half the speed of the clock that is at rest for the
observer.