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单词 Lorentz–Fitzgerald contraction
释义
Lorentz–Fitzgerald contraction

Physics
  • The contraction of a moving body in the direction of its motion. It was proposed independently by George Fitzgerald (1851–1901) in 1889 and by H. A. Lorentz in 1892 to account for the null result of the Michelson–Morley experiment. The contraction was given a theoretical background in Einstein’s special theory of relativity. In this theory, an object of length l0 at rest in one frame of reference will appear, to an observer in another frame moving with relative velocity v with respect to the first, to have length l0√(l − v2/c2), where c is the speed of light. The original hypothesis regarded this contraction as a real one accompanying the absolute motion of the body. The contraction is in any case negligible unless v is of the same order as c.


Mathematics
  • To an observer a body moving at high speed appears shorter (in the direction of motion) than it really is. Since the factor is 1v2c2:1 where c is the speed of light, the speed has to be very high or the measurement very precise for this to be observable. It was observed 20 years before Einstein’s special theory of relativity provided the explanation for it. The contraction is a consequence of the observer measuring between events that are not simultaneous in the rest frame of the moving object.


Astronomy
  • The contraction in length of a moving body in its direction of motion. The effect was proposed independently by the Dutch physicist Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (1853–1928) in 1895 and the Irish physicist George Francis Fitzgerald (1851–1901) in 1893 to account for the inability of the Michelson–Morley experiment to detect the Earth’s motion through the ether. It was later incorporated into the special theory of relativity. The contraction becomes noticeable only at velocities near that of light; at the speed of light itself, the object’s length would in theory contract to zero.


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