Question

You are packing for a trip to another star, and on your journey you will be traveling at a speed of 0.99c. Can you sleep in a smaller cabin than usual, because you will be shorter when you lie down? Explain your answer.

Answer 1

Step-by-step explanation:

No. From your own reference frame, nothing will change. Everything will look the same to you even if you're traveling at 99% speed of light. However, an outside observer will see you shrink to about 14% of your original length along the direction of your motion according to the Lorentz contraction predicted by special relativity:

`L=L_(0) \sqrt{1 - (v^2 )/(c^2 )}`