a transcript of the email:
Re: Time Dilation
Jason,
How do you define "when" in
> when seen from the astronauts's spaceship
In working out the answer to this question you will get the answer.
How do you define spatially separated but simultaneous events?
--Edward L. (Ned) Wright, Professor of Physics and Astronomy
310-825-5755, FAX: 310-206-2096,
www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/intro.html
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On Sat, 1 Nov 2003, Jason Tokn wrote:
>hi. i'm a year 12 student who just sat the hsc in australia, and i have a
>question regarding the relativity of time.
>the multiple chouice question 5
>an astronaut set out in a spaceship from earth orbit to travel to a distant
>star in our galaxy. the spaceship travelled at 0.8 c. when the spaceship
>reached the star the on board clock showed the astronaut that the journey
>took 10 years.
>an identical clock remained on earth. what time in eyars had elapsed on this
>clock when seen from the astronauts's spaceship?
>A 3.76
>b 6
>c 10
>d 16.7
>
>i put b, because it was my understanding that from the astronaut's
>perspective, the earth is moving away from the astronaut at 0.8c, and hence
>in the "moving" frame, time should go slower. could you please provide us
>with the correct answer, and a simplistic explanation.
>thank you.