Chapter 27, Problem 14P

|| A spaceship makes the long trip from earth to the nearest star system, Alpha Centauri, at a speed of 0.955c. The star is about 4.37 light-years from earth, as measured in earth’s frame of reference (1 light-year is the distance light travels in a year). (a) How many years does the trip take according to an observer on earth? (b) How many years does the trip take according to a passenger on the spaceship? (c) How many light-years distant is Alpha Centauri from earth, as measured by a passenger on the speeding spacecraft? (Note that, in the ship’s frame of reference, the passengers are at rest while the space between earth and Alpha Centauri goes rushing past at 0.955c.) (d) Use your answer from part (c) along with the speed of the spacecraft to calculate another answer for part (b). Do your two answers for that part agree? Should they?