How fast do objects approaching the speed of light, going in opposite direction appear to each other?
- Sunday Nov 22,2009 01:47 PM
- By diddy
- In Others
If a train is moving at 0.5c and a ball on the train is moving at 0.6c in the opposite direction how fast is the ball traveling relative to an outside observer at rest?
I also have a similar question. If object A is traveling at 0.5c and object B is traveling at 0.6c how fast is object B traveling relative to an observer on object A?
Object A and Object B are moving in opposite directions
5c, 6c, Direction, Directions, Moving, Speed Light, Speed Of Light, Train, Traveling
2 Comments
No, the question states "appear to each other".
If they ever had a chance to actually see each other, one would appear to be going at near light speed, to the other.
Relative to ouside observer, 0.1c. opposite to train direction.
0.1c. relative to observer on A, and towards him.
Both answers are about relative postion - I assume you mean the speeds in the first question, the speeds are "relative to the observer" - so you have stated the speeds
For objects moving relative to each other, you have to combine the speeds via Special Relativity’s "composition law". You’ll find the formula here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velocity-addition_formula#Special_theory_of_relativity - but your second question doesn’t say which direction they are travelling in with respect to each other…
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