iSoul In the beginning is reality.

# Reflected motion

This post was inspired by Chandru Iyer’s post here.

Consider a light ray sent a certain distance s that is immediately reflected back. According to Newtonian mechanics if a light ray travels at speed c, then for a body moving at speed v relative to the stationary frame, the light ray should travel at the speed c − v one way and at speed c + v the other way.

The total distance of the light ray is 2s. The total time of the light ray is

$\frac{s}{c-v}+\frac{s}{c+v}&space;=&space;\frac{s(c+v)+s(c-v)}{c^2-v^2}=\frac{2sc}{c^2-v^2}=2s&space;\gamma^2&space;/c$

Then the mean speed is

$\frac{2s}{\frac{s}{c-v}+\frac{s}{c+v}}=\frac{2s}{\frac{2sc}{c^2-v^2}}=\frac{c^2-v^2}{c}=c(1-(v^2/c^2))=&space;c/\gamma^2$

However, according to Einstein’s relativity theory, the mean speed of light is a constant, c. So the above speed needs to be multiplied by the gamma factor squared, γ². As Iyer notes, this is accomplished by contracting the moving rulers by the factor (1/γ) and dilating the moving clocks by the factor γ.

But that is not the correct approach.

Consider a light ray sent a certain distance s that is immediately reflected back, for a total distance of 2s. Since distance is the independent variable, time is a dependent variable and pace instead of speed is the proper rate of motion. The pace for speed c is 1/c and the pace for speed v is 1/v. Then for a body moving at pace 1/v relative to the stationary frame, the light ray should travel at the pace 1/c − 1/v one way and at pace 1/c + 1/v the other way. Then the total time is

$s(\frac{1}{c}-\frac{1}{v})+s(\frac{1}{c}+\frac{1}{v})&space;=&space;\frac{2s}{c}$

This is the same as that observed from the rest frame. The mean pace is

$\frac{2s/c}{2s}=\frac{1}{c}$

If time is the independent variable, the result is similar:

Consider a light ray sent a certain time interval t that is immediately reflected back, for a total time of 2t. According to Newtonian mechanics if a light ray travels at speed c, then for a body moving at speed v relative to the stationary frame, the light ray should travel at the speed c − v one way and at speed c + v the other way.

The total time of the light ray is 2t. The total distance of the light ray is

$t(c-v)+t(c+v)&space;=&space;2ct$

Again, this is the same as that observed from the rest frame. The mean speed is

$\frac{2ct}{2t}=c$