(A2-11) ① On the first leg of the journey, Cormorant’s experience is that he is static in frame C1. Nefertiti, on Earth, is moving away from him at a velocity of -0.5c. Importantly, Mars (static in Nefertiti’s frame of reference) is also moving: it is approaching Cormorant, again with a velocity of -0.5c. The distance between Earth and Mars is (near as damn it) constant but because Cormorant is a moving observer of this distance, we need to apply a relativistic correction. Recall the length contraction equation that we derived in section 2-7:
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Use this to figure out how much time Cormorant has experienced, at the end of the first phase, when he and Mars meet head-on? Add the result to the table.
② At the instant he collides with Mars, Cormorant changes the frame of reference where he is static: he will now be in frame C2, which is moving with a velocity of -0.5c relative to Nefertiti’s frame.
Cormorant will now be static in this new reference frame while, once again, Mars and Earth are moving relative to him, this time at a velocity of +0.5c. So how long will Cormorant spend on this second leg of the journey?
Adding this time to the outbound time you calculated in ①, you can now deduce the total amount of time Cormorant will have experienced when he is finally reunited with Nefertiti on Earth. Add the results to the table and compare this with the value you calculated in question A2-10, for the total time Cormorant would be expected to experience on his journey, when we approached it from Nefertiti’s point of view.
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