Relativity and Cosmology

    

An Alternative Derivation of Length Contraction Using Einstein’s Own Thought Experiment

Authors: Phuc Le, Jokubas Tamulis

By now, every high school Physics student has been familiar with the famous Special Theory of Relativity proposed by Einstein. The foundation of Special Theory of Relativity rests on two postulates: (1) The laws of Physics are the same in all inertial frames of reference and (2) The speed of light in a vacuum c = 3 × 10^8 m/s is the same in all inertial frames of reference. The consequences of such postulates are thefamous Time Dilation and Length Contraction formulas. Historically, in his paper Onthe Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies (1905), he derived Length Contraction through Lorentz Transformation. However, this article explores another way Length Contraction could have been discovered: through changing one bit of Einstein’s thought experiment, using the mathematical tool of infinite sum.

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[v1] 2025-09-30 20:59:53

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