Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-short-options-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2015/8/c/solution
Past exam of the short options course of the University of Oxford 2015 8 c Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-31
For , each adjacent pair of walkways has relative rapidity . There are such steps between and , so the equal-rapidity chain of collinear Lorentz boosts has total rapidity . Thus the actual velocity isIt is strictly below the speed of light for every finite . Adding the adjacent velocities as ordinary numbers ignores the relativistic velocity-addition formula.
For large , the Taylor series of the inverse hyperbolic tangent givesConsequentlyMore precisely, , so the limit is approached from above. The case would prescribe an adjacent relative velocity equal to the speed of light; it does not define an admissible walkway inertial frame.
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