Suppose a spaceship heading directly towards the Earth at half the speed of light sends a signal to us on a laserproduced beam of light. Given that the light leaves the ship at speed as observed from the ship, calculate the speed at which it approaches the Earth.

Strategy
Because the light and the spaceship are moving at relativistic speeds, we cannot use simple velocity addition. Instead, we can determine the speed at which the light approaches the Earth using relativistic velocity addition.

Transcribed Image Text:

laser light V = 0.500c C laser light C V = 0.500c