Physics601Homework5DueFridayOctober8

1. Astandardresultinundergraduaterelativityisthevelocityadditionformula:
v +v
v = 1 2 .ThistypicallyobtainedbytakingtheproductoftwoLorentz
1+ v1v 2
transformationsandthedoingsomealgebra.Amorestraightforwardwayto


vx
1

obtainthisusethefourvelocity: u = =
.SupposeIstartwitha
v y
1 v 2

vz
1

1 v1x

particlemovingwithvelocity v1withanassociatedfourvelocity u1 =
.
1 v1y

1 v1z
Supposeonebooststoanewframebyrunningtotheleft(xdirection)witha

2 v 2 2 0 0

v 2 2 2 0 0

velocitywhichcorrespondstoaLorentztransformation =
.
0
0
1 0

0
0 1
0

Thefourvelocityinthenewframeis u = u1 .
a. Fromthetransformedfourvelocityfind v x ,v y ,v z inthenewframe.

v +v

v = 1 2 .
b. Forthecasewhere v1isentirelyalongthexdirection,showthat
1+ v1v 2

2. Considerrelativistictransformationsrestrictedtoonespatialdirection.Inthat

case,thevelocitycanbespecifiedbyasinglenumberfrom1to1(inunitswith
c=1).Itisconvenienttointroducetherapidity withthepropertythat
v = tanh() .Notethatwhilevisrestrictedfrom1to1, goesfromto.
cosh()

sinh()

a. Showthatthe4velocityisgivenby u =
.
0

0
b. Showthatwhilevelocitiesdonotaddlinearlyinrelativityrapiditiesdo.That
isoneobtainstherelativisticvelocityadditionformulabytaking = 1 + 2 .
Inacertainsensethisturnsouttobejustthehyperbolictrigversionofthe

angleadditionformulafortwodimensionalrotations.

3. RelativisticKinematics:Considertheelasticscatteringoftwoparticleswithmasses
m1 and m2 .Supposeinitiallyparticle1isatrestandandparticle2approachesit

withavelocityvinthepositivezdirectionsafterthescatteringparticle1goesoff
makinganangle1 withrespecttothezaxis.Thepurposeofthisproblemistofind
expressionsforthemagnitudeofthevelocityofthetwoparticlesandtheangle
madebythesecondparticlesintermsofvand1.Dothisbyfirstgoingtothe
centerofmassframe(withzerototalmomentum)whereenergyandmomentum
conservationtellusthescatteringmustbebacktobackandthenboostingbackto
thelabframe.

4. Arocketfiresaconstantratesothatrocketsownrestframeitexperiencesan
accelerationinthe+xdirectionwithamagnitudeofg(i.e.anobserverintherocket
shipwouldfeelanartificialgravitypushingtheminthenegativexdirectionwitha
forceofmg).
a. Showthattheequationofmotionfortherocketisgivenby
0 g 0 0

g 0 0 0
du

= G u with G =
.Todothisyouneedtoshow
0 0 0 0
d

0 0 0
thattheaccelerationinthecommovingframeiscorrectandthattheform
d ( u u )
correctlygives
= 0 asrequiredfromthedefinitionof u .
d

b. Workinaframeforwhichtherocketshipstartsatrestattheorginatt=0.
Findanexpressionfor u ( ) .

c. Usetheresultofb.tocompute x ( ) .

d. Findx(t).