Image credit: NASA/ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI)

AST 201
STARS AND GALAXIES
ast201@astro.utoronto.ca

Slides developed by Profs. Mike Reid, Bryan Gaensler

Jeremy Webb, Renée Hložek, Barth Netterfield 1
AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Webb and
Prof. Gaensler |
 Announcements / Reminders
• The clicker code for
lectures is AA

• First assignment now on

Quercus: due
11.59pm on Jan 16

• Tutorials start in week 3

(Jan 23-27)

• Distraction-free zone:
Section A
AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 2
 Help Your Fellow Students
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on Quercus AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 3
 Term Project
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• There is a whole TA devoted to helping you

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AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 4

You fall asleep on
a train stopped at
the platform…
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Clicker Question – Not for Marks
You wake up. How can you tell whether the train is still at
the platform or is now moving?

A. You could stand on one foot and see

which way you start to tip over.
B. You would feel the motion in your body.
C. You could try rolling a ball along the floor
and see how it moves.
D. You could hear the train moving.
E. You couldn’t tell.
AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 51
You fall asleep on
a floating
space ship…
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Clicker Question – Not for Marks
You wake up. How can you tell whether the spaceship is
still floating, or is now coasting through space?

A. You could stand on one foot and see

which way you start to tip over.
B. You would feel the motion in your body.
C. You could try rolling a ball along the floor
and see how it moves.
D. You could hear the spaceship moving.
E. You couldn’t tell.
AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 52
AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 9
 Clicker Question – 60 seconds
How fast does the person on the plane see
the ball moving relative to the plane?

A. 0 km/hour
B. 10 km/hour
C. 890 km/hour
D. 900 km/hour
E. 910 km/hour
AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 53
 Clicker Question – 60 seconds
How fast does the person on the ground
see the ball moving relative to the ground?

A. 0 km/hour
B. 10 km/hour
C. 890 km/hour
D. 900 km/hour
E. 910 km/hour
AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 54
Clicker Question – Not for Marks
Whose view is correct?

A. The person on the plane.

B. The person on the ground.
C. A third person, watching the first two people.
D. They are all correct.
E. They are all incorrect.

AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 55

 We can only
measure motion
relative to a
given frame of
reference.

Credit: Shelby White and Leon Levy Archives Center AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 13
AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 13
 Let’s now repeat the
aeroplane experiment,
but with light instead of a ball.

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 The Speed of Light* (I)
Speed of light = 299,792.458 km/second

Speed of light = 1,079,252,850 km/hour

Speed of light = 9,460,528,400,000 km/year

Speed of light = c (saves space!)

* in a vacuum; slightly slower in air
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The Speed of Light (II)

AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 16

Credit: © 2008 Pearson Education Inc. AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 17
Clicker Question – Not For Marks
If a beam of light behaved the same way
as the ball, what would a person on the
ground measure its speed to be relative to
the ground?

A. 900 km/hour
B. c
C. c + 900 km/hour
AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 56
 The Speed of Light (III)
Some unbreakable rules:

• Light always travels at c

(in a vacuum)

• No object with mass can

ever reach or exceed light
speed
Credit: artofproblemsolving.com
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Clicker Question – Not For Marks
If a beam of light obeys the law of
physics, what would a person on the
ground measure its speed to be relative to
the ground?

A. 900 km/hour
B. c
C. c + 900 km/hour
AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 57
 No matter how the
experiment is done, all
observers measure the
same speed of light.
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The speed of the ball is
different in different
“frames of reference”.

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 The speed of light is
the same in all frames
of reference.

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The speed of light is
invariant.

AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 24

AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 25
Credit: © 2008 Pearson Education Inc. AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 26
Credit: © 2008 Pearson Education Inc. AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 27
Credit: © 2008 Pearson Education Inc. AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 28
Foundations of Special Relativity
1. We can only measure speeds of objects
relative to one another. (The laws of
physics apply equally in all reference
frames.)
2. The speed of light is invariant.

AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 29

 Clicker Quiz – 60 seconds
Jackie is moving away from you at speed 0.9c.
You shine a beam of light at her (at speed c,
of course). How fast does Jackie measure the light
to be moving?
A. 0
B. 0.1c
C. 0.9c
D. c
E. 1.9 c
Credit: © 2008 Pearson Education Inc. AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 58
Remember, the
speed of light is
invariant.
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This observed fact of
nature has bizarre
consequences.

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Let’s look at motion on
a train, from the
perspective of two
different observers.
AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 33
 Person on the train says the ball went up 1 metre and
came down 1 metre in 1 sec, for a speed of 2 metres/sec.
Credit: © 2008 Pearson Education Inc. AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 34
 Person on the tracks says that the ball went diagonally up 2 metres and came
diagonally down 2 metres in 1 second, for a speed of 4 metres/second.

Credit: © 2008 Pearson Education Inc. AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 35
 Clicker Quiz – 60 seconds
What do we usually say the two observers agree
on about the ball’s motion?

A. The time between throwing and catching

B. The ball’s speed
C. The distance the ball moved
D. None of the above
E. All of the above

AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 59

 Again, what
happens if we do
this with light?
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 Clicker Quiz – 60 seconds
If we repeat the experiment with a laser beam
bouncing off a mirror on the roof of the train, what
do the two observers have to agree on?

A. The time between release and return of the light

B. The speed of the light ray
C. The distance the light traveled
D. None of the above
E. All of the above
AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 60
 distance = speed x time
time = distance ÷ speed
time = distance ÷ c
time = (1 m + 1 m) ÷ c time = (2 m + 2 m) ÷ c
time = 6.7 nanosec = 13.4 nanosec

Credit: © 2008 Pearson Education Inc. AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 39
 Because two observers
moving relative to one
another must agree about
the speed of light, they must
disagree about the time
between events!
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 Traveller’s point of view

Time literally
flows at
different rates
Outside observer’s point of view for any two
people in
motion relative
to one another!

Credit: © 2012 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 41
 Traveller’s point of view

If someone is
moving relative
to you, their
Outside observer’s point of view
clock will
appear to run
slower to you

Credit: © 2012 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 42
This is called
time dilation.

AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 43

It gets weirder.

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Credit: W. Rory Coker

Observers in motion relative to one another also

disagree about lengths and distances.
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Credit: W. Rory Coker

If someone is moving relative to you, their

lengths will all appear shorter to you.
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 This is called
length contraction.

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