My guess: Treat the situation as if a moving observer receives a signal and reradiates it as if it were stationary in his frame of reference. Then go back and measure the result in the original frame. I'm not sure of the answer, but because of relativistic shifting of angles and wavelengths, I'd guess that (1) and (3) are not typically true. (2), I'd guess, might depend on whether or not the vector of the mirror velocity and the vector of the incoming ray are coplanar; i.e., the mirror might be moving "east-west", while the light ray comes in from above, from the south. Bill -----Original Message----- From: math-fun-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:math-fun-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Fred lunnon Sent: Wednesday, September 03, 2008 7:18 PM To: math-fun Subject: Re: [math-fun] Reflection from a moving mirror I'll stick my neck out --- (2) and (3) remain true, by (geometric) symmetry. The reflected ray behaves as if it were re-radiated from the point of incidence; so its frequency is blue-shifted by the ray's component along the direction of motion. Now then, how are we going to test it? WFL On 9/4/08, Eugene Salamin <gene_salamin@yahoo.com> wrote:
Test your physical intuition. We know that when light reflects from a stationary mirror
(1) The frequency of the reflected light equals the frequency of the incident light,
(2) The direction of the incident ray, the direction of the reflected ray, and the mirror normal are coplanar, and
(3) The angle of reflection equals the angle of incidence.
Suppose however, that the mirror is moving parallel to its surface. Do these three principles of reflection continue to hold?
Gene
_______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
_______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun