Nuclear fission or fusion occurring at or near the speed of light Suppose a device or object were

Matilda Webb

Matilda Webb

Answered question

2022-04-07

Nuclear fission or fusion occurring at or near the speed of light
Suppose a device or object were traveling at or near the speed of light, and fission or fusion occurred while in this state of motion, creating an enormous blast, what would occur? Would this cause an acceleration of the objects or particles immediately in front of this blast? Or would some other event occur that I am unfortunately unaware of?

Answer & Explanation

necrologo9yh43

necrologo9yh43

Beginner2022-04-08Added 23 answers

What happens after the blast does not depend on the speed of the object - it is the principle of relativity.
Assuming that the object moves at 9/10 of the speed of light and that the blast accelerates the particles at 1/10 of the speed of light in all directions, the 'at rest' observer would see the particles in front of the object moving at a speed of:
9 10 + 1 10 1 + 9 10 1 10 = 100 109 = 0.917 c
and the particles behind the object moving at the speed of:
9 10 1 10 1 9 10 1 10 = 80 91 = 0.879 c
From the point of view of an observer on the object itself all particles will move with the same 1 / 10 c speed.
If the blast accelerates particles in only a certain direction this will accelerate the object in the opposite direction. This acceleration - when seen by the 'at rest' observer - will depend on its direction, because at relativistic speed the inertia depends on the direction of the applied force.

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