Length Contraction
Enter your known values, leave one input blank, and solves for the missing one. Try different units for next level excitement!
Learning zone
Length contraction is time dilation seen from the other chair. The muon racing toward the ground says its clock is fine — instead, the 15 km of atmosphere ahead has contracted to 1.5 km, an easy trip in 2.2 μs. Both descriptions predict identical outcomes; relativity lets each observer keep their own self-consistent story. Only the dimension along the motion shrinks — a passing sphere stays a sphere in silhouette, just squashed in depth.
Length Contraction
Where
- = Contracted length
- = Rest length
- = Speed ratio v/c
Missing one of these? Work it out first, then come back
- Contracted length — Thermal Linear Expansion, Normal Strain (ε = δ/L)
- Rest length — Thermal Linear Expansion, Normal Strain (ε = δ/L)
- Speed ratio v/c — Lorentz Factor, Time Dilation