| Issue |
Europhys. Lett.
Volume 71, Number 5, September 2005
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Page(s) | 699 - 704 | |
| Section | General | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/epl/i2005-10143-x | |
| Published online | 27 July 2005 | |
Forces due to contraction on a cord spanning between two spaceships
Kraainem, Belgium
Received:
21
February
2005
Accepted:
28
June
2005
A formula is derived estimating the additional tensile forces which a cord must be able to exert to support the Lorentz contraction of itself and of two spaceships, positioned line-ahead, which it spans between, as those ships steadily and identically fire their thrusters. It is found that even a spider's thread of length one metre can exert the forces required to reach half light speed in less than half an hour between ships each weighing a hundred metric tonnes. A critique is also provided of previous published work in this area.
PACS: 03.30.+p – Special relativity
© EDP Sciences, 2005
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.