Relativistic Meter Sticks - Physics Demonstrations - Relativistic Meter Sticks | Physics Undergraduate Labs

Purpose

Physical meter sticks cut to the Lorentz-contracted lengths at 0.63c, 0.79c, and 0.93c make length contraction tangible. Students see how $L = L_0/\gamma$ produces increasingly dramatic contraction as $v \to c$ .

Four white sticks with alternating orange segments and number markings, arranged horizontally with left edges aligned; top stick is a full meter, each subsequent stick is progressively shorter

Figure 1: Physical representation of length contraction at different velocities. From top to bottom: stationary meter stick (100 cm), and contracted lengths at 0.63c (78 cm), 0.79c (61.2 cm), and 0.93c (36 cm).