#The age of the astronaut

Classical Mechanics Level pending

An astronaut aged 25 years old went to space and traveled with a speed of 1.8*10^8 m/s. According to earth the astronaut arrive on earth after 30 years. What is his age now?

50 yeras 49 years 49.5 years 51 years

1 solution

Alex Li
Feb 17, 2015

The actual time is $\frac{t_0}{\sqrt{1-\frac{v^2}{c^2}}}$ , where $t_0$ is the apparent time, by Special Relativity. This gives us $30=\frac{t_0}{\sqrt{1-\frac{(1.8\times10^8)^2}{(3.00\times10^8)^2}}}$ . Solving, $t_0=24$ , so the final answer is $25+24=\boxed{49}$ .

#The age of the astronaut

1 solution

0 pending reports