Greifswald 2024 – scientific programme

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DD: Fachverband Didaktik der Physik

DD 30: Astronomie

DD 30.2: Talk

Wednesday, February 28, 2024, 11:20–11:40, ELP 1: SR 2.28

Students Learn a Solution to the Barn-Problem in Special Relativity — •Paul Sawitzki^1,4 and Hans-Otto Carmesin^1,2,3 — ¹Athenaeum, Stade — ²Studienseminar Stade — ³Universität Bremen — ⁴Universität Heidelberg

We consider a ladder and a barn, whereby the ladder is longer than the barn in a common frame of rest. However, when the ladder moves in the rest frame of the barn, then the length of the ladder is smaller than the length of the barn, due to length contraction. Thus, the ladder would fit into the barn in the barn’s frame, but not in the ladder’s frame. This is the barn paradox. We show how this paradox is solved. More generally, we discuss the relevance of different measures of length in relativity. The results will be compared with accelerator experiments. By solving the paradox, central conceptual issues of relativity are addressed. This provides a deeper understanding of relativity and is therefore didactically valuable. We also discuss other proposed explanations of the paradox.

Keywords: Relativity; Paradoxes; Distance Measures; Accelerator; Length Contraction