Physics Technology Update (4th Edition)

Published by Pearson
ISBN 10: 0-32190-308-0
ISBN 13: 978-0-32190-308-2

Chapter 29 - Relativity - Conceptual Questions - Page 1040: 3

Answer

Please see the work below.

Work Step by Step

Let us suppose object 1 moves with a velocity $v_{13}$ relative to object 3. If the object 2 moves along the same straight line with a velocity $v_{21}$ relative to object 1, the velocity of object 2 relative to object 3 is $v_{23}$ and $v_{23}=\frac{v_{21}+v_{13}}{1+\frac{v_{21}v_{13}}{c^2}}$......eq(1) If the speed of light is infinitely larger, then $c\rightarrow \infty $, which implies that $\frac{1}{c}\rightarrow 0$. $\implies \frac{1}{c^2}\rightarrow 0$ $\implies \frac{v_{21}v_{13}}{c^2}\rightarrow 0$ $\implies 1+\frac{v_{21}v_{13}}{c^2}\rightarrow 1$ We plug in this value in eq(1) to obtain: $v_{23}=v_{21}+v_{13}$ Thus, the velocities are added by simple addition in the limit $c\rightarrow \infty$.
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