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How does the area of moving circle change?

Physics Asked on February 15, 2021

We know that the area of a circle at rest frame is

$$A=pi x^2$$ from $pi xy$ where y=x

If I move this circle with velocity $v$ in the x-direction, I would expect to see a contraction (I’m not talking about optical observation since in that case it will still look like a circle) in the x-direction and nothing on y-direction so my area will be

$$A=pi x’y$$

Since length in y-direction hasn’t changed and $x’=x{sqrt{1-frac{v^2}{c^2}}}$, area of a moving circle would be

$$A=pi x^2 sqrt{1-frac{v^2}{c^2}}$$

I couldn’t find anything on internet about contractions in area, this above reasoning would be how I would attack the problem, is that correct?

One Answer

Your reasoning is correct. It is indeed possible and correct to calculate the are of some shape by using the contracted lengths.

For example, for a square with $A=xcdot y$ where in the square's rest frame $x=y$, we would calculate the new area (assuming the square moves in $x$ direction with velocity $v$) by

$$A'=y cdot x' = x^2{sqrt{1-frac{v^2}{c^2}}}=frac{A}{gamma}$$

(To avoid cunfusion: primed' indicates a measurement made on an object with relative velocity $v$ while non-primed is a measurement made in the object's rest frame)

In fact, it seems to me that the relationship $A'=frac{A}{gamma}$ also applies to volumes, for example for a cube with volume $V=xcdot ycdot z$ where in the cube's rest frame $x=y=z$, we have

$$V'=ycdot zcdot x'=yzxsqrt{1-frac{v^2}{c^2}}=frac{x^3}{gamma}=frac{V}{gamma}$$

The same would also apply to a sphere with $V=frac 4 3pi r^3$:

$$V'=frac 4 3pi r^2r'=frac 4 3pi r^2rsqrt{1-frac{v^2}{c^2}}=frac{V}{gamma}$$

It can thus be said, assuming constant velocity in one direction that

$$A'=frac{A}{gamma}tag{1}$$

$$V'=frac{V}{gamma}tag{2}$$

where $gamma$ is the Lorentz Factor $gamma = frac{1}{sqrt{1-frac{v^2}{c^2}}}$


I am aware that the volume part isn't exactly related to the question, but I nevertheless wanted to expand a little in my answer, since the first part is basically just "yes"

Correct answer by Jonas on February 15, 2021

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