Related papers: A Simple Relativity Solution to the Bell Spaceship…
In Bell's spaceship paradox, a thread connects two spaceships moving with identical accelerations. As the ships accelerate in lockstep, the tension in the string increases due to the relativistic contraction and the string eventually…
A fifty-year old apparently paradoxical thought experiment involving two accelerating spaceships and a thread hat connects them states that the thread will break due to length contraction. This paradox still appears to be regarded by some…
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…
Unravelling apparent paradoxes has proven to be a powerful tool for understanding the complexities of special relativity. In this paper, we focus upon one such paradox, namely Bell's spaceship paradox, examining the relative motion of two…
We analyse the Bell paradox from the point of view of an inertial referential frame and from the one of an accelerated frame. We calculate the distance between the two accelerated spaceships as it appears in each referential and we show…
In Supplee's submarine paradox, a naive argument based on Lorentz contraction leads to a contradiction that a fast submarine should sink in the water's reference frame but float in the submarine's reference frame. Due to the submarine's…
The distinction between the real positions of moving objects in a single reference frame and the apparent positions of objects at rest in one inertial frame and viewed from another, as predicted by the space-time Lorentz Transformations, is…
In 1989 Supplee described an apparent relativistic paradox on which a submarine seems to sink to observers at rest within the ocean, but it rather seems to float in the submarine proper frame. In this letter, we show that the paradox arises…
A submarine moving at relativistic horizontal velocity sinks in Earth's rest frame due to length contraction while appearing to float in its own frame. Using spacetime geometry and the Lorentz transformations, we show that the resolution…
Relativistic rigid motion suggests a new version for the so-called `twin paradox', comparing the ages of two astronauts on a very long spaceship. Although there is always an instantaneous inertial frame in which the whole spaceship, being…
Some known relativistic paradoxes are reconsidered for closed spaces, using a simple geometric model. For two twins in a closed space, a real paradox seems to emerge when the traveling twin is moving uniformly along a geodesic and returns…
The development of both special and general relativity is accomplished in a series of 6 papers using a simple approach. The purpose is to explain the how and why of relativity to a broad public, and to be useful for students of physics by…
In the standard formulation of the twin paradox an accelerated twin considers himself as at rest and his brother as moving. Hence, when formulating the twin paradox, one uses the general principle of relativity, i.e. that accelerated and…
An apparent paradox in Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity, known as a Thomas precession rotation in atomic physics, has been verified experimentally in a number of ways. However, somewhat surprisingly, it has not yet been demonstrated…
A new apparent relativistic paradox is presented involving only one space-time event. This is different from earlier relativistic paradoxes involving extended bodies or events at different positions. A collision between a rod and a ring…
Selleri's paradox, based on an analysis of rotating frames, appears to show that the speed of light in an inertial system is not normally isotropic. This in turn seems at odds with the second postulate of special relativity requiring a…
The famous twin paradox of the Special Theory of Relativity by Einstein (1905) is revisited and revised. This paradox is not a paradox in the true sense of a paradox but a reflection of a misunderstanding of the problem and the Principle of…
A "Two-Spaceship Paradox" in special relativity is resolved and discussed. We demonstrate a nonstandard resolution to the "two-spaceship paradox" by explicit calculation using Generalized Principle of limiting 4-dimensional symmetry…
The Lambert problem consists in connecting two given points in a given lapse of time under the gravitational influence of a fixed center. While this problem is very classical, we are concerned here with situations where friction forces act…
Alternative theories of relativistic rotation considered viable as of 2004 are compared in the light of experiments reported in 2005. En route, the contentious issue of simultaneity choice in rotation is resolved by showing that only one…