An engineer models the flight of an automated high-velocity cargo shuttle from Ceres to a Kuiper belt outpost, which takes exactly 5.0 years5.0\text{ years}5.0 years according to the shuttle's onboard clock. The shuttle travels at a constant speed of 2.4 × 107 m s-1 relative to a tracking station on Earth.
The engineer predicts that a stationary clock at the Earth tracking station will record a total time of at least 10 days longer than the shuttle's onboard clock.
Comment on the engineer's prediction. Support your answer with a time dilation calculation.
In practice, the gravitational influence of a passing rogue planetoid perturbs the shuttle's path, causing it to deviate from a straight-line trajectory. Explain why the theory of special relativity can no longer be strictly applied to this journey.
22 exam-style questions on AQA A Level Physics Special relativity (A-level only), covering The Michelson-Morley experiment (A-level only), Einstein's theory of special relativity (A-level only), Time dilation (A-level only), Length contraction (A-level only), and Mass and energy (A-level only). Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.