A woman standing on the ground sees a rocket ship move past her at 98% of the speed of light. Compared to when the rocket is at rest, the woman measures the rocket's length as..... longer or shorter?

longer _at 98 percent the speed of light the speed is too high to be recognized by human eyes the rocket apeers longer than normal since it appears in a straight line a simple experiment is when a string tied to a point with a heavy ball on the end is revoved at a high speed appears cicular

According to the theory of relativity, when an observer is in motion relative to an object moving at a significant fraction of the speed of light, there are some interesting phenomena that occur, such as length contraction.

In this scenario, when the woman is standing on the ground, she sees the rocket ship moving past her at 98% of the speed of light relative to her. From her perspective, she would measure the length of the rocket as shorter compared to when it is at rest.

To understand why, we can use the concept of time dilation and velocity addition in relativity. According to time dilation, as an object approaches the speed of light, time appears to move slower for that object relative to an observer at rest. This means that clocks on the rocket ship would appear to be ticking slower for the woman on the ground compared to the clocks on the rocket.

Additionally, there is velocity addition in special relativity, which states that velocities do not simply add up when objects are traveling at relativistic speeds. Due to this effect, the apparent relative velocity between the woman and the rocket ship will not be exactly the same as the rocket ship's actual velocity.

Combining these effects, the woman observes that the time on the rocket is dilated, making the rocket appear to be moving more slowly. As a result, she measures the length of the rocket to be shorter compared to when it is at rest.

It is important to note that these relativistic effects become more significant as the velocity approaches the speed of light. At 98% of the speed of light, the length contraction effect is quite noticeable.