Re: SR examination question

[John Mallinckrodt <ajmallinckro@CSUPOMONA.EDU>]

On Thu, 17 May 2001, Jack Uretsky wrote:

>         I see no problem with the question.  I will translate it as
> follows:  The muon has a lifetime of about 1 microsec (\mu_s).  A
> beam of muons passes through my detector with a speed of 0.9c.  What
> lifetime do I measure for the muons?

This is a reasonable question.  Therefore, it must logically be a
mistranslation of the original unreasonable question.  Indeed, a
proper translation would read:

The muon has a lifetime of about 1 microsec (\mu_s).  A beam of
muons passes through my detector with a speed of 0.9c. During the
lifetime of a muon, how much time passes on my clock?

John Mallinckrodt      mailto:ajm@csupomona.edu
Cal Poly Pomona          http://www.csupomona.edu/~ajm