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Questioning the Universe
book

Questioning the Universe

by Ahren Sadoff
December 2008
Beginner content levelBeginner
224 pages
7h 44m
English
Chapman and Hall/CRC
Content preview from Questioning the Universe
The Theory of Relativity 125
T
total
= 2dv/[(v + u)(v u)] = 2dv/(v
2
u
2
)
To make our answer look similar to the one we obtained when the river was not
moving, we divide both numerator and denominator by v
2
to get our  nal answer:
T
up/down
= (2d/v)/(1 u
2
/v
2
) = (2d/v)/(1 (u/v)
2
) (12.3)
The numerator is identical to what we had for the time when the river was not mov-
ing, but now we have a denominator that is less than 1. That means that with the
river moving, the up/downstream boat takes a longer time to get back than when the
river is still. We can see why this is so by considering the special case when the river
is  owing with the same speed as the boat moves in still water (i.e., u = v). Then,
when the boat turns around ...
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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9781420082593