So my teacher asked me to do some math. He wants me to get two mirrors, a distance L from each other, and some source of light in one of them (i.e; a hole). Then he wants me to find out how long it takes for a beam of light to travel from one to the other and back, while the mirrors are stationary and then figure out how long it takes while I move the mirrors along what ever axis they are parallel on.

Now he said there's supposed to be a time delay and I agreed at first but now that I think of it, would it not take the same amount of time? I mean the light would still move in its straight line. Would they not both take the same amount of time?

if im picturing this correctly, the distance the light would have to travel would increase. this is why a leg on a triangle is smaller than the hypotenuse.

well yes, but the way I'm imagining it is light enters, and with respect to say the floor its just going in a straight line and being reflected back down in a straight line, as when you map the path it takes if the mirrors were moving (but the mirrors are stationary in the image you map) then it makes a triangle. But the mirrors are moving and say they're long enough in order that they don't escape the light as they move at a constant velocity.

If you could point out where my observations are wrong that would be great, because my teacher is a physics guy... I would hope hes right.. but I just don't see it anymore

e:\ elaboration

This post was edited by ass666 on Nov 11 2009 04:48pm

If you could make a quick drawing of the experiment in paint it would help alot.. I'm not english/american so my english is rather bad..

But if I understand this correctly, I would agree with your teacher