Activity 5 |
Use the second part of Worksheet 2 to work out the
factor for the muons.
What do the muons make of all this? Well, as far as they are concerned, they are stationary, and the earth is rapidly coming up to meet them! As far as they are concerned, they retain their halflife of 1.5 microseconds, and the distance from the top to the bottom of the mountain is contracted!
Activity 6 |
Use the third part of Worksheet 2 to work out the height of the mountain in the muons' frame of reference.
Even the most modern state-of-the-art particle accelerators cannot approach the energies involved cosmic ray showers. Nevertheless, the particles they produce have velocities very close to the speed of light. As a result any measurements of lifetime or decay length have to be corrected for relativistic effects, and would be different if the particles were at rest.
Are the experiences of the tortoise, sparrow and muons contradictory or complementary? Think about it before moving on!
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