Relativity for Laypersons

Part 4 - The Special Theory of Relativity Time and Length

Trains that pass in the night

Relativity loves trains and elevators. We now consider two trains on parallel tracks close to one another. We will assume Train A on Track A is stationary, while Train B on Track B is traveling rapidly at at uniform speed. The laws of physics are identical for both trains because their frames of reference are moving in a straight line relative to one another.

We cant tell which train is moving

The fact that the laws of physics are identical for both trains means that we cannot perform an experiment to determine which train is really moving. The experiment would give identical results in both trains. Even though we have stipulated that Train B is moving and Train A is stationary, the result we are going to find would be the same no matter how the trains were moving relative to one another, provided the motion was uniform and in a straight line.

Time dilation due to motion

Mary in Train B decides to measure the time it takes for light to travel from the floor of Train B to the ceiling. I will call this unit of time a trib. Of course, light travels so fast that Mary would have great difficulty actually finding the value of a trib, but this is a thought experiment and so we dont have to worry about the actual measurement.

A trib in Train B
Mary generates a single photon, unit of light, from the floor of Train B and measures how long it takes for that photon to get the ceiling. Because the photon is moving along with the train, it travels in a straight line perpendicular to the floor. But Ed in Train A is observing Marys experiment. But because Train B is moving relative to Train A, the path of the photon will be a bit longer than it was for Mary.

A trib in Train B - 2

Marys trib v. Eds trib

Note that, as Ed saw it, the distance the photon traveled to measure a trib was longer than the distance that it traveled for Mary. Therefore, if Ed measures the time in Train B in tribs, his trib, seen from Train A, will be longer than the time Mary measures in tribs in Train B. If Mary sees a trib as one second, Ed will see a trib as longer than one second. Ed and Mary do not see the same time. Time in Train B is lengthened for Ed in Train A. Likewise, Mary would see a similar effect in Train A.

IMPORTANT!
If Eds train was identical to Marys train and Ed measured a trib in his train in the exact same way that Mary measured it in hers, he would get the same value for a trib that Mary got. Internally, Ed and Mary cannot tell that their trains are moving. But Ed will observe that Marys trib is larger than his, that is, Marys trib is dilated in Eds frame of reference by the motion of Train B relative to Train A. This time dilation will have amazing consequences. Lets explore some of them.

The length of Marys train

Mary can measure the length of her train in tribs, that is, how many tribs does it take for light to travel from one end of her train to the other. Lets suppose that Mary finds the length of her train is 1000 tribs. Ed sees tribs in Marys frame of reference as longer than Mary sees them. So what Mary sees as 1000 tribs of length, Ed will see as fewer than 1000; that is, Ed will see Marys train as shortened relative to his frame of reference.

Simultaneity - 1
Disclosure: We have implicitly assumed that the speed of light is the same in ALL frames of reference and is unaffected by the way the frame is moving. This assumption is particularly important in considering the notion of simultaneity. Two events X and Y occur simultaneously if they occur at the same time. We might assume that if Mary and Ed saw the same flash of lightning outside their trains, they could agree on what time it occurred. But we would be wrong.

Simultaneity - 2
To illustrate this, assume that Mary sends two photons from the exact middle of her railcar in opposite directions and observes when they hit the ends of the car. The speed of light is unaffected by the speed of the train, so Mary sees the impacts as simultaneous. Ed, on the other hand, will see the photon moving in the opposite direction of trains motion as hitting before the other photon hits the front of the railcar. To Ed, the impacts are not simultaneous.

Simultaneity - 3
Thus, the time we see an event occur depends on our frame of reference. It can get really weird. Given two events X and Y, X and Y may occur simultaneously in the same frame of reference, X may occur before Y is another frame, and Y may occur before X is still another frame, depending on how the frames are moving with respect to one another. What does this mean for the concept of X causing Y?