Problem 31 in Gilat. (3 points)
31. According to special relativity, a rod of length L moving at velocity v will
shorten by an amount 8, given by:
where c is the speed of light (about 300 x 10 m/s). Consider a rod of 2 m
long, and make three plots of 8 as a function of v for osv<300 x 10 m/s.
In the first plot use linear scale for both axes. In the second plot use loga-
rithmic scale for v and linear scale for 8, and in the third plot use logarith-
mic scale for both v and 8. Which of the plots is the most informative?
From Physics, this is the equation for "Lorentz Contraction."
As v -> c (the speed of light), 8 (lower case delta A) -> L, meaning length -> 0.
The length is given as 2m, so in the plots, as v->c, 8 -> 2.
If this were normalized (i. e., length of 1m), then the value would approach 1.
In matlab