1. You say, if the thrust remains constant, and the mass decreases due to fuel consumption, then acceleration of the rocket and astronauts increases. When solving problems to do with acceleration, remember newtons second law is a = NetForce/mass
i.e. in a rocket, the upward thrust(T) is opposed by downward weight force (mg)
so a = (T-mg)/m
hence the forces experienced by the astronauts increases as acceleration increases.
2. analyse and interpret means.. i guess weighing the possiblities of his thought expriments and knowing that there are extreme limitations to how accurate or trustworthy such experiments are. When u read the part about thought and reality, you'd feel like launching into some philosophy, but i guess what you need to say is these expermients are conducted through your own experiences and common sense, and are not a measure of reality. Of course, these are the closest we can get since we are limited by techonology and reality itself.. .. er moving on..
the mirror on speed of light train experiment: can you or can you not see your reflection?
a) yes - since the principle of relativity states that you cannot detect whether you are moving at a constant speed or not.. so the light travels normal for your frame.
except if viewed from outside, it would seem the light travels twice as fast..
b) no - since light can only travel at a constant speed c, so the light would never reach your face from the mirror or vice versa.
bassically einstein thinks yes, because relativity must hold true..
and then he concludes from this, that since light is constant for any two frames on and off the train, time and space varies.
c) analyse the link between proposing a theory, finding evidence for it, and finally accepting it. When einstein first proposed his relatity, there was little to no evidence supporting either. His relativity made the aether redundant, which was not good bac kthen.. so people had trouble swalloing it. The only evidence for general rel' was the sun light distortion thing during eclipse. so that was pretty hard to find evidence.
it wasnt until technology became more advanced that his theories were accepted.
evidence includes : atmoic clocks, mesons, particle accelerators.
as time passed there was basically a choice between accepting a model which began to gather supporting evidence (relativity) and one which didnt have any support(aether)...