Re: How students can test relativity

[Bernard Cleyet <anngeorg@PACBELL.NET>]

Exam question:

Present to students one of PV's posts.  Ask, What's wrong?

bc

rlamont wrote:

> I know we have been warned not to respond to these screeds, but the logic in
> this one is so faulty that it doesn't even work with ordinary phenomena like
> sound waves. The reason the pitch decreases (or wavelength increases) for
> the sound of a car horn (when the car is moving away from the listener) is
> because the same number of wavelengths emitted when the car is at rest now
> cover a longer distance because of the motion of the car during the time the
> waves are emitted. There is no appeal to a change in the speed of sound to
> explain the phenomena - just as there is no need to appeal to a change in
> the speed of light in the case of the rocket.
>
> I promise I won't say anything further.
>
> Bob at PC
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Forum for Physics Educators [mailto:PHYS-L@list1.ucc.nau.edu] On
> Behalf
>
>
> > Of Pentcho Valev
> > Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2004 7:13 AM
> > To: PHYS-L@LISTS.NAU.EDU
> > Subject: How students can test relativity
> >
> > By resolving the following problem. A light source at the top of a tower
> > with height h emits light and this light reaches a receiver on the ground
> > with a speed (as judged by the receiver): A) c ; B) c+v, v>0
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