Re: Length Contraction

[Hugh Haskell <hhaskell@MINDSPRING.COM>]

> 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.
> - Abby Abul Kalam
> Community College of Denver

I don't have any direct length contraction experiments that I can
recall, but it's corollary, time dilation has been experimentally
verified many times. The cosmic ray experiments conducted on Mt
Washington in New Hampshire in the early 50s (late 40s?) are one
example. And, I think it is impossible to reconcile those results
with reality unless the time dilation is accompanied by a concomitant
length contraction.

Of course, what Lorentz and FitzGerald did in their explanation of
the Michelson-Morely experiment amounts to attributing the result to
length contraction. So perhaps on can say that the M-M experiment was
itself an experimental verification of length contraction.

I recall reading some years ago that the designers of the Stanford
Linear accelerators were able to take into account the apparent
length contraction of the accelerator tube "seen" by the electrons to
make the job of aligning the tube much easier, but that was many
years ago and I don't remember the details.

Hugh
--

Hugh Haskell
<mailto://haskell@ncssm.edu>
<mailto://hhaskell@mindspring.com>

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