Special Relativity Applets

Today in the second half of class we will go through some applets meant to familiarize you with the concepts of special relativity in a more intuitive way. You can find them here, I suggest opening them in a new window so you can still view this post.

There are 5 applets you can click through and play with a bit. You may want to play each animation a few times to carefully see what is going on. The applets cover:

1. Light clock and time dilation
2. Length contraction
3. Simultaneity of events
4. Space-time diagrams
5. Momentum in different reference frames

Once you have gone through all the applets, as a group, type up a short summary of what you observed in each of the first four applets, and write down the equation(s) most relevant to each one. You should play the fifth applet, but need not write about it. Try to answer at least the following questions for the first four applets, based on physical reasoning.

1. Why must the time interval be different for a moving and stationary observer?
2. Why must measured lengths appear shorter to moving observers?
3. What must be true for observers to always measure two events as simultaneous?
4. How does the space-time interval relate to the graphs, and why is it invariant?

Turn in one write-up per group, with all group member's names. Your report may be typed or handwritten.