Question

At noon a rocket ship passes the Earth with a velocity 0.8c. Observers on the ship and on the Earth agree that it is noon. At 12:30 pm as read by a rocket ship clock, the space station clock reads 12:50PM
Calculate how far from Earth (in the Earth coordinates) the station is?

Answer 1

@Silent_Sorrow
Just to clarify, there are three different locations mentioned in this problem? The earth, the rocket ship, and the space station?

Answer 2

"At 12:30 pm as read by a rocket ship clock, the space station clock reads 12:50PM "

The way this sentence is phrased really bugs me since the problem itself is fairly vague. It never says that the observers on the rocket ship go to the space station or where they're going at all for that matter; nor do we know where they started.

So knowing the time on the space station is just....weird.

Answer 3

@roadjester I also thought the question was rather vague. Yes there are three locations, however the space station is in the same inertial frame as Earth and as such has synchronized clocks. I'm just unsure how exactly you can calculate the space stations distance from Earth with only the supplied information.

Answer 4

Are you using Lorentz transformation or conventional methods and using the Lorentz velocity transformation?

Answer 5

Lorentz transformations

Answer 6

Now, the rocket ship clock reads 12:30 when the space station clock reads 12:50. But remember that the rocket ship is moving so there is a time dilation factor that causes the dilation difference to be 20 minutes.

Answer 7

As of right now I'm burned out. Any quick last minute questions? I want to hit the sack.

Answer 8

How would I find the distance the space station is from Earth