A spacecraft built in the shape of a sphere moves past an observer on the Earth with a speed of 0.500c. What shape does the observer measure for the spacecraft as it goes by?

Given the speed of the 0.500c, the spacecraft is spherical.

Explanation:

The length of an object is contracted in the direction of the motion. It can be visualize that if a spherical body is contracted along a particular axial direction then the shape of the spherical body is seem to be in shape of a pillow, similarly the spherical spacecraft moves away and seems to be contracted along the direction of motion, so it becomes a round shape flattened along the direction of motion.

force required to detach it is given by

charges are taken to be fundamental charge

now we have

so above is the minimum distance at which it will detach