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Re: SR examination question



On Thu, 17 May 2001, John Mallinckrodt wrote:
Hi all-
But John's proper translation would give the same answer to
the question as my original translation. So, John, where, in the new
context, is the ambiguity?
Regards,
Jack

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


--
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Greg Nagan from "The Metamorphosis" in
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