CK-12 Physics Concepts - Intermediate

Answer Key

Chapter 25: Relativity

25.1 The Theory of Special Relativity

Review

Questions

1. A woman stands on top of a moving railroad car and tosses a ball straight up in
the air. If there is no air resistance, where will the ball come back down?
a. behind the railroad car
b. ahead of the railroad car
c. into the woman’s hand
2. If you were inside a windowless car that was traveling perfectly smoothly at a
constant velocity, you could determine the speed of the car by dropping a ball.
a. True
b. False
3. Does time dilation mean that time actually passes more slowly in a moving
reference frame or that it only seems to pass more slowly?
4. A young looking woman astronaut has just arrived home from a long trip at near
the speed of light. She rushes up to an old gray-haired man and refers to him as
her son. Is this possible?
5. If you were traveling away from the earth at a speed of 0.5 c, how would your
heartbeat, length, and mass change? What would observers from earth say
about their measurements of your heartbeat, length, and mass?
6. A person on another planet shines a flashlight at you. The planet and the earth
are both in the same reference frame and are not moving relative to each other.
At the same instant that the person shined the flashlight at you, a person on a
spaceship passing that planet and moving toward you at 0.5 c also shined a
flashlight at you. Which light pulse will reach you first?
a. the light from the person on the planet
b. the light from the flashlight on the spaceship
c. the two light pulses will reach you at the same time
7. If a spaceship will shrink when it travels at a speed of 0.75 c, do we need to
make design changes to accommodate passengers and crew?
8. A beam of particles travel at a speed of . At this speed, the
particles average lifetime is measured to be . What is a
particle’s lifetime when they are at rest?
9. A spaceship passes you at a speed of 0.80 c. You measure its length to be 90.0
m. How long would this space ship be at rest?
10. If you were to travel to a planet 36 light years from earth at a speed of 0.98 c,
what would you measure the distance to be?

1
 11. If the rest mass of a proton is , what is its mass when
traveling at 0.85 c?
12. At what speed will the relativistic mass of an object be exactly double its rest
mass?
13. How much energy would be produced if 1.00 milligram of mass were completely
converted into energy?

Answers

1. The ball would return to the woman’s hand, as its inertia (granted by the forward
motion of the railroad car) would be unchanged by the vertical acceleration of her
hand. Answer C.
2. False, the ball would fall straight down regardless of the speed of the car.
Answer B
3. Time actually passes more slowly at relativistic speeds.
4. This is entirely possible, as time would have passed more slowly for her on her
trip than for her son.
5. As you moved away, your heartbeat would slow, your length (the dimension
along the same axis as your travel) would compress, and your mass would
increase, as measured by a motionless observer. You would measure no
change in any of these as related to your initial records.
6. The light pulses would arrive at the same time, as the speed of light in a vacuum
is constant.
7. No change is necessary, as the passengers would perceive no compression, and
would undergo the same compression from the perspective of an external
observer.
𝑚
2.85×108
8. The speed of the particle is: 𝑠
𝑚 = 0.95𝑐. The lifetime of the particle at rest
3.0 ×108
𝑠
may be calculated using:
Δ𝑡 2.50×10−8 𝑠 2.50×10−8 𝑠
Δ𝑇 = 2
∶ Δ𝑇 = 2
∶ ∶ 7.906 × 10−8 𝑠.
√1−𝑣2 √1−(0.95𝑐) √1−0.90
𝑐 2 𝑐

𝑣2 (0.80𝑐)2
9. Using 𝐿 = 𝐿𝑜 √1 − 𝑐 2 ∶ 𝐿 = 90.0𝑚√1 − ∶ 𝐿 = 90.0𝑚√0.36 ∶ 𝐿 = 54𝑚
1𝑐 2
10. You would measure the distance to be 36 light years
𝑚𝑜 1.67×10−27 𝑘𝑔 1.67×10−27 𝑘𝑔 1.67×10−27 𝑘𝑔
11. Using 𝑀 = 2
∶𝑀= ∶ 𝑀= ∶ 𝑀= ∶𝑀=
(0.85𝑐)2 √1−0.72 √1−0.72
√1−𝑣2 √1−
𝑐 𝑐2
1.67×10−27 𝑘𝑔
0.53
𝑴 = 𝟑. 𝟏𝟓𝟏 × 𝟏𝟎−𝟐𝟕 𝒌𝒈
𝑚𝑜
12. Using 𝑀 = 2
set 𝑚𝑜 = 1 and 𝑀 = 2:
√1−𝑣2
𝑐
1𝑘𝑔 √3
2𝑘𝑔 = ∶ 𝑣= 𝑐
2 2
√1 − 𝑣2
𝑐

2
 𝒗 = 𝟎. 𝟖𝟔𝟕𝒄
𝑚 2
13. Using 𝐸 = 𝑚𝑐 2 ∶ 1.0 × 10−6 𝑘𝑔 (3.0 × 108 𝑠 ) = 𝟗. 𝟎 × 𝟏𝟎𝟏𝟎 𝑱𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒆𝒔
𝑴 = 𝟑. 𝟏𝟓𝟏 × 𝟏𝟎−𝟐𝟕 𝒌𝒈

25.2 The Theory of General Relativity

Review

Questions

1. The general theory of relativity was a new way of understanding

a. the speed of light.
b. gravity.
c. mass.
d. force.

2. Gravity can bend the path of light.

a. True b. False

3. Strong gravitational fields can alter the rate of time passing.

a. True b. False

4. Under what circumstances will a light beam follow a curved path?

a. when emitted from a moving source
b. when measured from an accelerating space ship
c. when measured in the presence of an extreme gravitational field
d. NEVER
5. If you are traveling toward the star Sirius at , what speed would
you measure for the speed of light arriving at your ship from Sirius?
a.
b.
c.
d.

Answers

1. The general theory of relativity was a new way of understanding gravity : Answer B
2. Gravity can bend the apparent path of light : True
3. Strong gravitational fields can alter the rate that time passes : True
4. A light beam will follow an apparently curved path when measured in the presence of
an extreme gravitational field : Answer C
5. The speed of light in a vacuum is a constant, 3.0 × 108 𝑚/𝑠 : Answer A