The solution at revision #20575 of , by Tete. This is not the current version.

Statement

14.1.4∗. According to observations from Earth, the light of a distant star falls on the Earth at an angle to the direction of its motion when the Earth is approaching the star with the greatest speed. How much will this angle change when the Earth's speed reverses its direction?

For problem $14.1.4$

Solution

For problem $14.1.4$
For problem

The radius of the Earth's orbit around the Sun is around light-seconds making its circumference roughly light-minutes (while the Earth takes around days to complete one orbit). Thus, the speed of the Earth relative to the Sun is much smaller than the speed of light, i.e. . Although nonrelativistic analysis is sufficient, we will use relativistic consideration until the algebra involved becomes too cumbersome, at which point appropriate estimates will be made.

Relative to the Sun, the velocities of the Earth at and are and along the -axis, respectively. Consequently, the velocity of the Earth at relative to the Earth at is

where . Relative to the Earth at , the and components of the velocity of light are and , respectively. Relative to the Earth at , the and components of the velocity of light are

and

respectively, where . Let the angle that light makes with the direction of motion of the Earth at be . Then,

Since , we have and . If , which is true unless is close to , then is small, and

Thus,

Answer

Approximately for not close to .