You are traveling at close to the speed of light, on your way back to Earth from a distant star. In your own reference system of the space ship, compared with the reference system of Earth,
a. the travel time to Earth is shorter and the distance to Earth is the same.
b. the travel time to Earth is longer and the distance to Earth is the same.
c. the travel time to Earth is shorter and the distance to Earth is longer.
d. the travel time to Earth is longer and the distance to Earth is longer.
e. the travel time to Earth is shorter and the distance to Earth is shorter.
[Ques. 2] This graph shows the adjustment factor versus the ratio of the speed of the system or object to the speed of light. The graph implies that, if travel at speed c were possible, a clock traveling at the speed of light would stop.
a. True.
b. False.
c. It is impossible to know.
[Ques. 3] Which is true about comparing clocks in two different inertial systems?
a. There is no way to know the relation between clocks in the two systems.
b. Clocks in one system appear to run faster when viewed from the other.
c. Clocks in one system appear to run slower when viewed from the other.
d. Clocks in one system appear to run backwards when viewed from the other.
e. The clocks are all synchronized.
[Ques. 4] Which of the following is true about simultaneous events?
a. Whether two events are simultaneous depends on the reference system the events are viewed from.
b. Two events at different places cannot ever be simultaneous.
c. Two events can only be simultaneous if they happen at the same place.
d. Two events can only be simultaneous if they are very carefully timed.
e. Only one event can be simultaneous at a time.
[Ques. 5] The ground observer shown here sees the cans explode at the same time, yet the observer in the van sees the can on the right explode first. Suppose instead that the cans were side-by-side, one on the driver's side of the van and the other on the passenger's side. If the ground observer again saw the cans explode at the same time, what would the observer in the van see?
a. The can on the driver's side of the van explodes first.
b. The can on the passenger's side explodes first.
c. The cans explode at the same time.
[Ques. 6] The second postulate of special relativity is that:
a. The speed of light in a vacuum depends on the relative motion of the source and observer.
b. The speed of light in any medium is the same constant.
c. The speed of light is slower for a moving observer.
d. The speed of light in a vacuum is a constant independent of the speed of either the source or the observer.
e. The speed of light in a vacuum depends on its motion through the ether.
[Ques. 7] What, according to the modern view, was the reason Michelson's and Morley's experiment failed to observe motion relative the ether?
a. The ether wind works very differently than they thought.
b. Light does not require a medium to travel through.
c. Their equipment was not sensitive enough to detect the ether wind.
d. Their hypothesis was fine, but their experiment was badly flawed.
e. Earth drags the ether with it.
[Ques. 8] What made Maxwell's equations conflict with Galilean invariance while Newton's laws did not conflict?
a. They depended on acceleration rather than velocity.
b. They depended on velocity rather than acceleration.
c. They dealt with non-inertial systems rather than inertial systems.
d. They dealt with inertial systems rather than non-inertial systems.
e. They dealt with electromagnetic effects rather than mechanics.
[Ques. 9] The first postulate of special relativity says that:
a. the laws of physics are all the same.
b. the laws of physics are the same in all reference systems.
c. the laws of physics are the same in all non-inertial reference systems.
d. the laws of physics are the same in all inertial reference systems.
e. the laws of physics are the same in all closed reference systems.
[Ques. 10] Earth is a noninertial reference system:
a. only because it rotates.
b. only because it revolves.
c. only because of the movement of the Milky Way Galaxy.
d. only because of the motion of the Moon.
e. because of all the various ways it moves, including rotation, revolution, and the movement of the Galaxy.
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