Will Distance Between Footsteps Change When Walking Near Light Speed?

[sweet springs]

The conveyers we use in the airports to reach the terminal in short time gives us an example. One step distance for the walker and that of waiting passengers in the cue for boarding are different though they count the same step numbers. Is it a good example though not relativistic?

 

[ghwellsjr]

well in the context of the quote I provided, I assumed it would in fact simplify things, particularly in regards to the number of footprints in the different frames.

many of the replies to the OPs scenario seem(at least to me) to be centered around how contraction would change the distance of the stride...and while its certainly interesting, I found Simon's particular "version" of the paradox to be a little easier to digest and even more intriguing. ie. how could there be 2 different versions of an event in regards to a quantity such as the number of footprints?

I hope you realize that when Simon articulated the paradox in post #11, he wasn't resolving it.

I think the issue can be clearly understood if you look at his definition of "stride" in post #33: It's the distance between the two feet when both are on the ground (at the same time). There're two things we can take from this. First, a one-legged man cannot have a stride and second, the stride only exists (at least for my examples) in the man's rest frame, in the ground frame both feet are never on the ground at the same time.

I unfortunately didn't follow this advice in my post #15 where I said the stride increased from 4 feet to 6.67 feet. I should have said the spacing of the footprints increased from 4 feet to 6.67 feet. I hope my error didn't contribute to any confusion.