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-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Sciamanda [mailto:trebor@VELOCITY.NET]
Sent: Friday, January 25, 2002 2:57 PM
To: PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu
Subject: Re: A Question of Simultaneity
Set up two detectors on a railroad car (spaced along the direction of
travel). Wire the detector outputs into a coincidence counter whose
output blows the train whistle when coincident events occur.
All of this
apparatus is on the moving train.
Now add, on the train, an isotropic light source midway between the
detectors. When this light source fires a pulse, the train
whistle will
blow.
A second observer standing on the ground sees that the whistle was
triggered by light arrivals which were not simultaneous in the ground
frame, but he realizes that the apparatus is rigged to fire
only for light
arrivals which are simultaneous in the TRAIN frame.
Bob Sciamanda (W3NLV)
Physics, Edinboro Univ of PA (em)
trebor@velocity.net
http://www.velocity.net/~trebor
----- Original Message -----
From: "Thomas McCarthy" <tmccarthy@SPS.EDU>
To: <PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu>
If two flashes of light appear simultaneous andconsequently trigger
a response, how does the non-silultaneous nature as viewedfrom another
frame explain the occur of the same response, yet the lightis not seen
to impinge upon the trigger at the same time? Thanks.
Tom McCarthy