Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Relativity

Here is interesting question, while it's simple for people familiar with theory of relativity, imagining the followed experiment can be an eye openinig experience,

Imagine following device, the laser pointed straight up with a mirror mounted some distance above it that bounces light back to the laser where receptive is attached sensor. Knowing distance of round trip and time between sending light impulse and receiving it we can verify speed of light. Now lets place that device on very fast moving train. For the observer on the train nothing changes same data, same result. However for observer on the ground light now travels along zigzag or two sides of triangle covering more distance then in stationary case. Given that speed of light is the same in both cases, how is that possible?

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