Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Length contraction is the phenomenon that a moving object's length is measured to be shorter than its proper length, which is the length as measured in the object's own rest frame. [1] It is also known as Lorentz contraction or Lorentz–FitzGerald contraction (after Hendrik Lorentz and George Francis FitzGerald ) and is usually only noticeable ...
Length of the atmosphere: The contraction formula is given by = /, where L 0 is the proper length of the atmosphere and L its contracted length. As the atmosphere is at rest in S, we have γ=1 and its proper Length L 0 is measured. As it is in motion in S′, we have γ>1 and its contracted length L′ is measured.
(The Trouton–Rankine experiment conducted in 1908 also gave a negative result when measuring the influence of length contraction on an electromagnetic coil.) [1] To explain all experiments conducted before 1904, Lorentz was forced to again expand his theory by introducing the complete Lorentz transformation.
The experiments of Rayleigh and Brace (1902, 1904) were aimed to show whether length contraction leads to birefringence or not. They were some of the first optical experiments measuring the relative motion of Earth and the luminiferous aether which were sufficiently precise to detect magnitudes of second order to v/c.
For instance, Bell argued that the length contraction of objects as well as the lack of length contraction between objects in frame S can be explained using relativistic electromagnetism. The distorted electromagnetic intermolecular fields cause moving objects to contract, or to become stressed if hindered from doing so.
The famous Michelson–Morley experiment of 1887 showed that the then-accepted aether theory needed to be modified. FitzGerald and Lorentz, independently of each other, proposed a length contraction of the experimental apparatus in the direction of motion (with respect to the luminiferous aether) that would explain the almost null result of the Michelson–Morley experiment.
1902 – Lord Rayleigh writes that Lorentz’s hypothesis of length contraction predicts a form of birefringence and tries to observe it. [14] The null result questions Lorentz’s model, but it would be later explained by a combination of length contraction and time dilation. 1902 – Max Abraham develops his classical model of the electron.
The proper length of an object is the length of the object in the frame in which the object is at rest. Also, this contraction only affects the dimensions of the object which are parallel to the relative velocity between the object and observer. Thus, lengths perpendicular to the direction of motion are unaffected by length contraction.