In a certain particle accelerator experiment, two subatomic particles A and B ar
ID: 1467912 • Letter: I
Question
In a certain particle accelerator experiment, two subatomic particles A and B are observed to fly away in opposite directions from a particle decay. Particle A is observed to travel witha speed of 0.6c relative to the laboratory, and particle B is observed to travel with a speed of 0.9c, where c is the speed of light (3.0 x 10*8 m/s). For simplicity's sake, let's agree to take the direction of motion of particle B to define the +x direction in both the laboratory frame and particle A's frame. We would like to calculate the relative velocity of particles A and B.
a.) What object should we choose to be the Home Frame in this problem, according to the conventionions established in this chapter (object moving left should be Home Frame)? what object defines the Other Frame? What object is the object whose velocity we want to determine in both frames? Please explain.
b.) Use the galilean velocity transformation equations to calculate the relative velocity of the two particles as a fraction or multiple of c.
Please explain your work and show all steps!
Explanation / Answer
(a) The object moving right is the other frame or prime frame. We want to determine the velocity of object in home frame i.e. the object moving to left in both the frames.
(b) Relative velocity = 0.9c + 0.6c = 1.5c