467,997 views
26 votes
26 votes
A particle accelerator has a circumference of 23 km. Inside it protons are accelerated to a speed of 0.999999972c. What is the circumference of the accelerator in the frame of reference of the protons?

User Renate
by
2.9k points

1 Answer

26 votes
26 votes

This is related to length contractive, so:


\begin{gathered} L=L_o\sqrt{1-(v^2)/(c^2)} \\ so: \\ L=23000√(1-(0.999999972)^2) \\ L\approx5.4m \end{gathered}

Answer:

5.4 m

User Emerito
by
3.1k points