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    Supplee's Paradox

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    perception888
    The Supplee's paradox, also known as the submarine paradox, arises when considering the buoyant force exerted on a relativistic bullet immersed in a fluid subject to gravity. There is a paradox because in one frame of reference the bullet's increased mass due to relativity would cause it to sink, while in the other frame the fluid's increased mass would cause it to rise. The paradox is resolved by properly accounting for gravity, which lies outside of relativistic kinematics, and by noting that the shape of either the bullet or fluid container is altered in different frames of reference.

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    Supplee's Paradox

    Uploaded by

    perception888
    93 views3 pages
    The Supplee's paradox, also known as the submarine paradox, arises when considering the buoyant force exerted on a relativistic bullet immersed in a fluid subject to gravity. There is a paradox because in one frame of reference the bullet's increased mass due to relativity would cause it to sink, while in the other frame the fluid's increased mass would cause it to rise. The paradox is resolved by properly accounting for gravity, which lies outside of relativistic kinematics, and by noting that the shape of either the bullet or fluid container is altered in different frames of reference.

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    Supplee's Paradox

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    The Supplee's paradox, also known as the submarine paradox, arises when considering the buoyant force exerted on a relativistic bullet immersed in a fluid subject to gravity. There is a paradox because in one frame of reference the bullet's increased mass due to relativity would cause it to sink, while in the other frame the fluid's increased mass would cause it to rise. The paradox is resolved by properly accounting for gravity, which lies outside of relativistic kinematics, and by noting that the shape of either the bullet or fluid container is altered in different frames of reference.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    93 views3 pages

    Supplee's Paradox

    Uploaded by

    perception888
    The Supplee's paradox, also known as the submarine paradox, arises when considering the buoyant force exerted on a relativistic bullet immersed in a fluid subject to gravity. There is a paradox because in one frame of reference the bullet's increased mass due to relativity would cause it to sink, while in the other frame the fluid's increased mass would cause it to rise. The paradox is resolved by properly accounting for gravity, which lies outside of relativistic kinematics, and by noting that the shape of either the bullet or fluid container is altered in different frames of reference.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    of 3

    Supplee's paradox

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    In relativistic physics, Supplee's paradox (also called the submarine paradox)


    arises when considering the buoyant force exerted on a relativistic bullet immersed in
    a fluid subject to an ambient gravitational field. If a bullet with neutral buoyancy
    passes through a fluid at a relativistic speed, will its increased mass in the fluid's
    frame of reference cause it to sink, or will the fluid's increased mass in the bullet's
    frame of reference cause it to rise? The paradox was apparently first discussed by
    James M. Supplee.

    Contents
    1 A bit about buoyancy
    2 Statement of the paradox
    3 Resolution of the paradox
    4 See also
    5 References
    6 External links

    A bit about buoyancy


    To simplify the analysis, it is customary to neglect drag and viscosity, and even to
    assume that the fluid has constant density.

    Consider a small object immersed in a container of fluid subject to a uniform


    gravitational field. Then the object will be subject to a net downward gravitational
    force. Compare this with the net downward gravitational force on an equal volume of
    the fluid. If the object is less dense than the fluid, the difference between these two
    vectors is an upward pointing vector, the buoyant force, and the object will rise. If
    things are the other way around, it will sink. If the object and the fluid have equal
    density, we say that the object has neutral buoyancy and it will neither rise nor sink.

    Statement of the paradox


    It is simplest to assume that at rest, the bullet has neutral buoyancy.

    In the rest frame of the fluid, if the bullet moves at speed , then according to the
    kinematic laws of special relativity, its density (as measured in the frame of the fluid)

    increases by the square of the Lorentz Factor . Therefore, a


    rapidly moving bullet should sink.
    In the rest frame of the bullet, the density of fluid, as measured in the frame of the
    bullet, increases by the same factor, so the moving bullet should rise.

    Resolution of the paradox


    The resolution comes down to observing that the gravitational force lies outside the
    domain of kinematics; when it is treated properly, the paradox disappears.

    Supplee himself concluded that the paradox can be resolved by noting that in the
    frame of the bullet, the shape of the container of fluid is altered (viz. the sea floor is
    curved upwards). Given certain assumptions about how to treat the gravitational
    force, he argued that the bullet sinks with acceleration , where g is the
    acceleration due to gravity (assumed to be uniform over the scale of the thought
    experiment) and is the factor mentioned above.

    The paradox has also been studied by George Matsas, who used mathematical
    methods from general relativity to remove Supplee's assumptions. In particular, he
    modeled the situation using a Rindler chart. Matsas concluded that the paradox can be
    resolved by noting that in the frame of the fluid, the shape of the bullet is altered, and
    derived the same result which had been obtained by Supplee. Matsas has applied a
    similar analysis to shed light on certain questions involving the thermodynamics of
    black holes.

    See also
    Bell's spaceship paradox
    Ehrenfest paradox
    Ladder paradox
    Physical paradox
    Twins paradox

    References
    Matsas, George E. A. (2003). "Relativistic Arquimedes law for fast moving
    bodies and the general-relativistic resolution of the "submarine paradox"".
    Phys. Rev. D 68 (2): 027701. arXiv:gr-qc/0305106.
    Bibcode:2003PhRvD..68b7701M. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.68.027701. See also
    the eprint version.
    Supplee, J. M. (1989). "Relativistic buoyancy". Am. J. Phys. 57: 757.
    Bibcode:1989AmJPh..57...75S. doi:10.1119/1.15875.

    External links
    Light Speed Submarine - article about the paradox in Physical Review Focus
    Categories:
    Physical paradoxes
    Theory of relativity

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