Question

A child on a playground swing is swinging back and forth (one complete oscillation) once every four seconds, as seen by her father standing next to the swing. At the same time, a spaceship hurtles by at a speed close to the speed of light. According to special relativity (and ignoring the Doppler effect for this question), a person on the spaceship finds that the time for one full swing is:

A - less than 4 seconds when the spaceship is approaching the swing and longer than 4 seconds when it is moving away.
B - less than 4 seconds.
C - more than 4 seconds.
D - equal to 4 seconds.

Answer 1

In special relativity, the time for one full swing of a child on a playground swing from the perspective of a person on a spaceship moving at a speed close to the speed of light is longer than 4 seconds. Hence the correct answer is option c

Step-by-step explanation:

In special relativity, the time for one full swing of a child on a playground swing from the perspective of a person on a spaceship moving at a speed close to the speed of light is longer than 4 seconds. The correct answer is C - more than 4 seconds. According to special relativity, time dilation occurs when objects are in motion relative to each other, causing time to appear slower for the moving object compared to the stationary observer. Therefore, the astronaut on the spaceship would perceive the time for one full swing to be longer than 4 seconds.