Relativity of the conception of Distance
Hello Friends, in this Lesson we will try to figure out something very important about the measurement of distance.Let us consider two particular points on the train travelling along the embankment with the velocity V. It is very obvious that there must be a body of reference for the measurement of distance. We will use a rod (scale type thing) about which we say that distance equal to this rod would be called one unit of distance.We will mark distance on the train and will use it as the reference body.Let us say there are two points A' and B' and we have to find out the distance between them.Then the number of times we have to put rod to measure the distance between the points is called the distance between the two points.
Let two points A and B which correspond to the point A' and B' on the train at any time t - measured with respect to the embankment. The distance between A and B can be measured same as it was done for the points on the train.Now you must be thinking it to be very obvious that the two measured distances (measured between A' and B' with respect to the train and A and B with repect to the embankment) should be equal to each other but I am very happy to amaze you that you are wrong at this. We have already proved wrong The Theorem of Addition of Velocities which also gives us a clue that the two distances must not be equal.The Reason of the Distances not being equal is the famous concept of The Theory of Relativity The Length Contraction.
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