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File:Relativistic wheels.gif

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Relativistic_wheels.gif(750 × 500 pixels, file size: 2.01 MB, MIME type: image/gif, looped, 100 frames, 4.0 s)

Summary

Description
English: The speed of the center of a wheel is 0.9 c . The speed of the top of a wheel is 0.994 c while the speed of the bottom is always zero. This is why the top is contracted relative to the bottom (Fitzgerald contraction, a consequence of Einstein's special theory of relativity). This animation is made with the assumption that the spokes of a wheel are much more elastic than its circumference. Otherwise there could be a rupture of the spokes or of the circumference. This is not an optical image (no eye or camera). The true position of a wheel is represented, in the referential of the ground (where the speed of the bottom of a wheel is zero). In the rest frame of the center of a wheel, wheels are circular and their spokes are straight and equidistant, but their circumference is contracted and exerts a pressure on the spokes, the contraction of the circumference is a purely relativistic effect (this shows that Fitzgerald contraction is a real effect, not a kind of illusion) but not the contraction of the spokes, because their speed is perpendicular to their length, their contraction is only an effect of pressure.
Date
Source Own work
Author Thierry Dugnolle

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Captions

Wheels which travel at 9/10 the speed of light

Items portrayed in this file

depicts

6 June 2020

image/gif

File history

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Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current07:55, 1 July 2020Thumbnail for version as of 07:55, 1 July 2020750 × 500 (2.01 MB)Thierry Dugnollecorrection of a slight error
11:08, 6 June 2020Thumbnail for version as of 11:08, 6 June 2020750 × 500 (2.1 MB)Thierry DugnolleUploaded own work with UploadWizard

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