Lorentz contraction, Bell's spaceships, and rigid body motion in special relativity
Classical Physics
2015-05-13 v3
Abstract
The meaning of Lorentz contraction in special relativity and its connection with Bell's spaceships parable is discussed. The motion of Bell's spaceships is then compared with the accelerated motion of a rigid body. We have tried to write this in a simple form that could be used to correct students' misconceptions due to conflicting earlier treatments.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.0906.1919,
title = {Lorentz contraction, Bell's spaceships, and rigid body motion in special relativity},
author = {Jerrold Franklin},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0906.1919},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
Modified the discussion in Sec. 2. This version to be published in European Journal of Physics