Reflection of light from a uniformly moving mirror

Gjurchinovski, Aleksandar

doi:doi:10.1119/1.1778390

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American Journal of Physics -- October 2004 -- Volume 72, Issue 10, pp. 1316

Reflection of light from a uniformly moving mirror

Aleksandar Gjurchinovski

Department of Physics, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Sts. Cyril and Methodius University, P.O. Box 162, 1000 Skopje, Macedonia

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We derive a formula for the law of reflection of a plane-polarized light beam from an inclined flat mirror in uniform rectilinear motion by applying the Huygens–Fresnel principle. We then use this formula and the postulates of special relativity to show that the moving mirror is contracted along the direction of its motion by the usual Lorentz factor. The result emphasizes the reality of Lorentz contraction by showing that the contraction is a direct consequence of the first and second postulates of special relativity, and is not a consequence of the relativistic measurement of the length. © 2004 American Association of Physics Teachers.