Length Contraction - Paradoxes

Paradoxes

Due to superficial application of the contraction formula some paradoxes can occur. For examples see the Ladder paradox or Bell's spaceship paradox. However, those paradoxes can simply be solved by a correct application of relativity of simultaneity. Another famous paradox is the Ehrenfest paradox, which proves that the concept of rigid bodies is not compatible with relativity, and reduces the applicability of Born rigidity. It also shows that for a co-rotating observer the geometry is in fact non-euclidean.

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Famous quotes containing the word paradoxes:

    The so-called paradoxes of an author, to which a reader takes exception, often exist not in the author’s book at all, but rather in the reader’s head.
    Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)

    The paradoxes of today are the prejudices of tomorrow, since the most benighted and the most deplorable prejudices have had their moment of novelty when fashion lent them its fragile grace.
    Marcel Proust (1871–1922)

    This is one of the paradoxes of the democratic movement—that it loves a crowd and fears the individuals who compose it—that the religion of humanity should have no faith in human beings.
    Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)