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How I Learned To Stop Worrying About Speed and Love Light, or Prepared and Presented by Mauricio Campuzano GK-12 Fellow Stevens Institute of Technology 1
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Imagine you are on a train… How fast does Nolan see the ball go? 2
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James Clerk Maxwell was a genius! As Einstein put it, “[his work is the] most profound and the most fruitful that physics has experienced since the time of Newton.” He unified the theory of Electromagnetism A primary result is that light is an electromagnetic wave, with a speed c = (µ o ε o ) -1 = 3x10 8 m/s Moreover, the speed of light appears to be constant in a vacuum PS: He was one of the first to propose what would later be known as dimensional analysis 3
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If the speed of light is constant... How fast does Nolan see light going? 4
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1. The principle of relativity. The laws of physics apply in all inertial reference systems. (Inertial system = Moving at a constant speed, also know as non-accelerating frames) 2. The universal speed of light. The speed of light in vacuum is the same for all inertial observers, regardless of the motion of the source. 5
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A better question: What time does Dave see on his watch? Moving clocks run more slowly than a stationary clocks. Twins in Space show time is relative… And the equation is: 6
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Moving objects are shorter than objects at rest Yet another equation: “The barn and the ladder” 8
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Mass increases as a function of speed! No such thing as “simultaneous” Rest energy of any particle is… E = mc 2 9
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http://en.wikipedia.org/ http://en.wikipedia.org/ D. Griffiths “Introduction to Electrodynamics,” 2e http://physics.ucr.edu/~wudka/Physics7 http://physics.ucr.edu/~wudka/Physics7 http://webs.morningside.edu/slaven/physics/relativi ty/ http://webs.morningside.edu/slaven/physics/relativi ty/ P. A. Tipler, R. A. Llewellyn “Modern Physics” 3e 10
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