There is a simple thought experiment for relativity that seems to indicate that when light is emitted from a moving source it will be "bent" in the direction of travel of the source. It still goes at c in all refrence frames though. I just want to check if my understanding of this is correct. Reference frame S' moves at a velocity V parallel to reference frame S. At time t1' a laser pulse is emitted perpendicular to the direction of travel from position x1' in frame S'. also x1'=x1 and t1'=t1. In frame S' the light beam goes up and hits a mirror and comes back down. The total time for the light pulse to return is 2L/c where L is the length to the mirror. In frame S though the light goes at an angle so its path is longer. But light still travels at the same speed. From this we get time dialiation. The time for the light pulse to return in frame S is gamma*2L/c. So that explains the basic problem. My understanding of this is that moving sources cause light to be bent in the direction of travel. I calculated the angle at which the light is bent to be ArcTan[v/c*gamma]. This is the angle from the perpendicular. So is my understanding of this correct? After I did the above calculation I tried to figure out how much a light ray would be bent that was already leaving the moving source at an angle. I am not sure if I did it right though. The formula I got is A=ArcTan[c*tanA'sinA'/(gamma(c*sinA'+v*tanA'))]. A' is the angle between the direction of travel and the direction of the light ray in frame S'. I can post how I solved it if I need to. Before I go to all that effort though I just want to make sure everything I am doing makes sense so far. I will have more later. Thanks.
