--%>

Explain Muon experiment

Muon experiment: The experiment that demonstrates proves the prediction of time dilation by the special relativity. Muons, that are short-lived subatomic particles, are made with enormous energy in the upper environment by the interaction of energetic cosmic rays. The muons have a very short half life in their own reference frame, around 2.2 us. As they are travelling very near to c, though, time dilation effects must become significant. A naive computation would point out that, without special relativistic effects, the muons would travel on the average only around 700 m before decaying, never accomplishing the surface of the Earth. The observations reveal, though, that significant numbers of muons do reach the Earth. The elucidation is that muon is in a moving frame of reference, and therefore time is slowed down for the muons associative to the Earth, efficiently extending the half life of the muons associative to the Earth, permitting some of them to reach the surface.

   Related Questions in Physics

  • Q : Explain Schroedingers cat

    Schroedinger's cat (E. Schroedinger; 1935): A thought experiment designed to exemplify the counterintuitive and strange ideas of reality that come all along with the quantum mechanics. A cat is sealed within a clos

  • Q : Define Lenzs law Lenz's law (H.F. Lenz;

    Lenz's law (H.F. Lenz; 1835): The induced electric current always flows in such a direction that it resists the change generating it.

  • Q : Bragg's law Bragg's law - Whenever a

    Bragg's law - Whenever a beam of x-rays strikes a crystal surface in which the layers of ions or atoms are often separated, the maximum intensity of the reflected ray takes place when the complement of the angle of incidence, theta (θ), the wave

  • Q : Explain Hawking radiation Hawking

    Hawking radiation (S.W. Hawking; 1973): The theory which black holes emit radiation similar to any other hot body. The virtual particle-antiparticle pairs are continuously being made in supposedly empty space. Infrequently, a pair wil

  • Q : Define Singularity Singularity : The

    Singularity: The center of a black hole, where the curvature of space-time is maximal. At singularity, the gravitational tides deviate; no solid object can yet theoretically survive beating the singularity. Though singularities usually predict inconsi

  • Q : Does solar radiation encompass a

    Does solar radiation encompass a complete spectrum of all the forms of electromagnetic radiation?

  • Q : Define Spin-orbit effect Spin-orbit

    Spin-orbit effect: The effect that causes atomic energy levels to be split since electrons contain intrinsic angular momentum (that is spin) in summation to their extrinsic orbital angular momentum.

  • Q : What do you mean by the term crest What

    What do you mean by the term crest? Briefly illustrate it.

  • Q : Explain Uncertainty principle

    Uncertainty principle (W. Heisenberg; 1927): A principle, central to the quantum mechanics that states which two complementary parameters (like energy and time, position and momentum, or angular momentum and angular displacement) can’t both be r

  • Q : What is Laplace equation Laplace

    Laplace equation (P. Laplace): For the steady-state heat conduction in 1-dimension, the temperature distribution is the explanation to Laplace's equation, which defines that the second derivative of temperature with respect to displac