Re: Length Contraction

[Leigh Palmer <palmer@SFU.CA>]

> I am wondering if someone could tell me what experimental evidence there has
> been to confirm length contraction stated in Einstein's Special Theory of
> Relativity. Thanking you in advance.

Consider the atmospheric blanket of Earth as perceived in the frame
of an extremely relativistic* secondary cosmic muon created in the
upper stratosphere. With its 2.2 microsecond mean life the muon can
"expect" to travel only about 660 meters, yet many such muons reach
Earth's surface. The interpretation is that in the muon's frame of
reference the atmosphere is only a few hundred meters thick, proof
of the reality of length contraction. If the atmosphere were, say,
66 km thick, then the sky would have to be black with muons at the
top of the atmosphere for any to survive to sea level. For one muon
to make it without length contraction five trillion tons of muons
would have to start out from that height.

Leigh

* velocity approximately equal to the velocity of light.