A spaceship, traveling at 0.560c towards a stationary space platform, launches a secondary towards the station with a speed of 0.100c relative to the spaceship. What is the speed of the
Secondary rocket relative to the space platform?
A) 0.600c
B) 0.575c
C) 0.625c
D) 0.660c
E) 0.460c

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

To find the speed of the secondary rocket relative to the space platform, we use the relativistic velocity addition formula: $ v = \frac{u + v'}{1 + \frac{uv'}{c^2}} $, where $ u = 0.560c $ (speed of spaceship relative to platform) and $ v' = 0.100c $ (speed of secondary rocket relative to spaceship). Plugging in the values, we get $ v = \frac{0.560c + 0.100c}{1 + \frac{0.560c \times 0.100c}{c^2}} = \frac{0.660c}{1 + 0.056} \approx 0.625c $.

A Spaceship, Traveling at 0