A student is on Mars standing on the gangplank of a spaceship when she sees an identical spaceship go past Mars at 90% of the speed of light. When she looks closely at this spaceship, how does it compare with her own spaceship?
A) The moving spaceship appears to be shorter than hers, and time on it appears to move more slowly than on her ship.
B) The moving spaceship appears to be shorter than hers, and time on it appears to move more quickly than on her ship.
C) The moving spaceship appears to be longer than hers, and time on it appears to move more quickly than on her ship.
D) The moving spaceship appears to be longer than hers, and time on it appears to move more slowly than on her ship.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

According to the theory of relativity, objects moving at a significant fraction of the speed of light will appear to contract in the direction of motion (length contraction) and time will appear to dilate, or move more slowly, from the perspective of a stationary observer.

A Student Is on Mars Standing on the Gangplank of a Spaceship