Two identical observers are viewing a stop watch traveling at the speed of light from a distant star. One viewer is using the naked eye the other a high power telescope. What would each of the viewers say the stopwatch reads. (is there a difference?)
would it be a tiny difference relative to the length of the telescope or would you be able to see further into space faster with the telescope???
my brain is going to explode!
2007-05-20 15:09:25 · 6 answers · asked by someone 5 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
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The light will be slightly delayed in telescope because light slows down in glass lenses.
If the observer using naked eye reads 10.00,then the observer with telescope will read 10.00 slightly later
Naked eye observer will say it is 10.00, the observer with telescope will say "No, not yet"
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2007-05-20 16:08:11 · answer #1 · answered by ukmudgal 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
There would be no difference, provided the two observers are standing the same place and are not moving relative to each other or the star.
The only time that you will get differences in measurement is if one of the observers is moving relative to the other, i.e. one is flying past in a spacecraft and the other is standing on the surface of the earth.
The telescope only magnifies the light and does nothing to improve your "sight speed" (which really isn't important: the speed of light in a vacuum is the speed of light in a vacuum, regardless).
2007-05-20 23:43:39 · answer #2 · answered by Dark Knight 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The telescope would see the watch later depending on the distance .... the speed of the watch is irrelavant cos he's further away....
if both observers we're at the same location it would be the same time only the watch would be magnified ....
next question.....
2007-05-20 22:15:25 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
there would be no difference in watch readings. All the telescope can do is make objects larger for easier viewing.
2007-05-20 22:13:37 · answer #4 · answered by R.A.Biddog 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
And what would traveling faster have to do with the watch reading? Unless it's analog, there wouldn't be a difference, and it wouldn't change whether they were going 10 mph or 10,000,000,000 mph.
2007-05-20 22:17:08 · answer #5 · answered by AggressiveNapkin 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
There wouldn't be any difference since the wavefront(s) seen by both of them are the same. Time dilation -only- occurs when measurements are made from different inertial reference frames.
HTH
Doug
2007-05-20 22:16:17 · answer #6 · answered by doug_donaghue 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋