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THE ELEGANT UNIVERSE, Brian Greene, 1999, 2003
```(annotated and with added bold highlights by Epsilon=One)
```(annotated and with added bold highlights by Epsilon=One)
Chapter 2 - Space, Time, and the Eye of the Beholder
Motion's Effect on Space
The preceding discussion reveals that observers see moving clocks ticking more slowly than their own—that is, time is affected by motion. It is a short step to see that motion has an equally dramatic effect on space. Let's return to Slim and Jim on the drag strip. While in the showroom, as we mentioned, Slim had carefully measured the length of his new car with a tape measure. As Slim is speeding along the drag strip, Jim cannot apply this method to measure the length of the car, so he must proceed in an indirect manner. One such approach, as we indicated earlier, is this: Jim starts his stopwatch just when the front bumper of the car reaches him and stops it just as the rear bumper passes. By multiplying the elapsed time by the speed of the car, Jim can determine the car's length.
Using our newfound appreciation of the subtleties of time, we realize that from Slim's perspective he is stationary while Jim is moving, and hence Slim sees Jim's clock as running slow. As a result, Slim realizes that Jim's indirect measurement of the car's length will yield a shorter result than he measured in the showroom, since in Jim's calculation (length equals speed multiplied by elapsed time) Jim measures the elapsed time on a watch that is running slow. If it runs slow, the elapsed time he finds will be less and the result of his calculation will be a shorter length.
Thus Jim will perceive the length of Slim's car, when it is in motion, to be less than its length when measured at rest. This is an example of the general phenomenon that observers perceive a moving object as being shortened along the direction of its motion. For instance, the equations of special relativity show that if an object is moving at about 98 percent of light speed, then a stationary observer will view it as being 80 percent shorter than if it were at rest. This phenomenon is illustrated in Figure 2.4. 5
Using our newfound appreciation of the subtleties of time, we realize that from Slim's perspective he is stationary while Jim is moving, and hence Slim sees Jim's clock as running slow. As a result, Slim realizes that Jim's indirect measurement of the car's length will yield a shorter result than he measured in the showroom, since in Jim's calculation (length equals speed multiplied by elapsed time) Jim measures the elapsed time on a watch that is running slow. If it runs slow, the elapsed time he finds will be less and the result of his calculation will be a shorter length.
Thus Jim will perceive the length of Slim's car, when it is in motion, to be less than its length when measured at rest. This is an example of the general phenomenon that observers perceive a moving object as being shortened along the direction of its motion. For instance, the equations of special relativity show that if an object is moving at about 98 percent of light speed, then a stationary observer will view it as being 80 percent shorter than if it were at rest. This phenomenon is illustrated in Figure 2.4. 5
Figure 2.4 A moving object is shortened in the direction of its motion.