Space-Time Lab - Tutor Page 14

	Let's say there is a farmer, who has a barn of length L, and a very long ladder with length 2L. One day the farmer really wants to put his big ladder away, but he cannot fit it in the barn at all. So the framer's son, who has just read the first couple slides of this tutorial, has an idea. If he ran really fast, say at about .87c, or 160,000 miles per second, then the ladder would be contracted by a factor of 2 and it would fit in the barn. However, the farmer disagrees, asserting that in the ladder's rest frame, the barn would be contracted by a factor of two, and then there would be no way of fitting the ladder inside. Let's say that the front and the back doors of the barn are open, and 'being' in the barn means the end of the ladder is inside before the front leaves out the back door. I've started this experiment for you. So who is right? A) They are both right, whether or not the ladder fits into the barn is frame dependent. B) The farmer is right, there is no way a ladder of length 2L fits in a barn of length L. C) The farmer's son is right, if he runs at .87c, gamma = 2 and the ladder fits quite nicely. Choose a letter and click Next.
Back Page 14	A B C
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