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1. Alice, who has extremely long arms of length 4, holds a flashlight in each hand. She keeps her arms outstretched so the flashlights are
1. Alice, who has extremely long arms of length 4, holds a flashlight in each hand. She keeps her arms outstretched so the flashlights are separated a distance 26. Alice stands midway between two mirrors that are at rest relative to her. The distance from Alice's head to either mirror is L (throughout this problem you can treat Alice's head like a single point). Relative to Bob, Alice and the mirrors move with a speed v to the left. According to Alice, she turns on each flashlight simultaneously, sending one light pulse to the left mirror and one towards the right mirror. Anna L Bob a) Let's first consider the situation from Alice's frame: i) Will the light pulses reach the mirrors simultaneously or will one arrive earlier? If one arrives earlier, which one? ii) After bouncing off the mirrors, the light pulses eventually pass the flashlights from which they originated. Will they pass their respective flashlights simultaneously or will one arrive earlier? If one arrives earlier, which one? iii) Will the light pulses reach Alice's head simultaneously or will one arrive earlier? If one arrives earlier, which one? b) Now let's consider the situation from Bob's frame by working backwards: i) Will the light pulses reach Alice's head simultaneously or will one arrive earlier? If one arrives earlier, which one? ii) Based on your previous answer, which light pulse must pass by its respective flashlight as well as bounce off its respective mirror first? iii) Consider the total distance traveled from the flashlight to the mirror then back to the flashlight for each light pulse. Are these distances the same for each light pulse or are they different? iv) Which flashlight will Bob see Alice turn on first, or are these events simultaneous
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