Special and General Relativity Forum

Join in expert discussion on special and general relativity discussion. Relativity is the dependence of various physical phenomena on relative motion of the observer and the observed objects.

Threads

Graduate Why does the equivalence principle forbid localizing gravitational potential energy?

  • exmarine
  • · Replies 3 ·
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Graduate Eddington's Experiment: Sources for Calculations

  • rphysx
  • · Replies 7 ·
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7

High School Would a close binary black hole flyby heat Earth more than a single one?

  • Devin-M
  • · Replies 11 ·
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11

Undergrad Light deflection formula in terms of impact parameter

  • andresB
  • · Replies 7 ·
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7

Undergrad Do gravitational waves confirm length contraction predicted by special relativity?

  • zoltrix
  • · Replies 6 ·
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6

Undergrad Relativity's Effect on Long Rod Shape and Speed

  • saddlestone-man
  • · Replies 11 ·
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11

High School Fewer seconds or shorter seconds?

  • Kairos
  • · Replies 109 ·
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Graduate Lowering and raising indices in Ricci tensor calculation

  • GrimGuy
  • · Replies 13 ·
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13

Undergrad Can general relativity have attractors if it has a Hamiltonian formulation?

  • atyy
  • · Replies 5 ·
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5

Undergrad Definition of Tensor Identity Simplification

  • Arman777
  • · Replies 3 ·
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3

High School Gravitational wave background detection and implications

  • enorbet
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

Undergrad The spacetime length of finite spacelike intervals

  • cianfa72
  • · Replies 67 ·
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High School Analogies for Gravitational Attraction in Physics

  • geordief
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

Undergrad Acceleration in special theory of relativity

  • LagrangeEuler
  • · Replies 6 ·
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6

High School Black Hole Energy Conversion - How Does It Work?

  • Peter Cole
  • · Replies 9 ·
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9

Undergrad Time and Lorentz transformations

  • trees and plants
  • · Replies 22 ·
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22

High School Could Universe Expansion Be Causing a Decay in the Speed of Light?

  • Matilda111
  • · Replies 22 ·
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22

Undergrad What is a "rotating worldline"?

  • etotheipi
  • · Replies 8 ·
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8

High School How does spacetime curvature explain Mercury's perihelion shift?

  • Herbascious J
  • · Replies 13 ·
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13

Undergrad How to work out the tetrads for given functions?

  • etotheipi
  • · Replies 9 ·
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9

High School Why Aren’t ALL SR Effects Cumulative?

  • MacWylie
  • · Replies 28 ·
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28

High School Time Dilation: Away or Toward Observer?

  • Involute
  • · Replies 3 ·
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3

Graduate Differences between Actions in Curved Spacetime

  • Haorong Wu
  • · Replies 1 ·
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1

Undergrad New paper gravitomagnetism explains dark matter effects

  • kodama
  • · Replies 4 ·
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4

High School Clocks Vanishing into Thin Air - Gravitational Time Dilation

  • Buckethead
  • · Replies 27 ·
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27

High School How do I construct spacetime diagrams for moving frames?

  • Grasshopper
  • · Replies 5 ·
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5

Undergrad Electric Field seen by an observer in motion

  • aliens123
  • · Replies 59 ·
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Undergrad Lorentz transformations in 2+1 and 3+1 dimensions

  • robwilson
  • · Replies 93 ·
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Undergrad Christmas lights extending into a black hole: what's visible from 1000 AU?

  • D.S.Beyer
  • · Replies 13 ·
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13

High School Is the Twins Paradox Equivalent to GPS Time Dilation?

  • Buckethead
  • · Replies 70 ·
3
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High School Understanding Lorentz Transformations in Special Relativity

  • Kaguro
  • · Replies 24 ·
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24

High School How does time dilation affect measurements of wheel rotation on a moving bus?

  • etotheipi
  • · Replies 8 ·
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8

Insights The Electric Field Seen by an Observer: A Relativistic Calculation with Tensors

  • robphy
  • · Replies 1 ·
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1

Undergrad Postulates of Special Relativity: Speed of Light in Inertial Frames

  • Q1111
  • · Replies 9 ·
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9

Undergrad Diffeomorphism Invariance, Passive/Active Interpretations GR Insight

  • haushofer
  • · Replies 10 ·
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10

Graduate Trajectories of particles in uniformly accelerated reference frames

  • Mathieu Rouaud
  • · Replies 5 ·
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5

High School Is the equivalence principle at the heart of special relativity?

  • jeremyfiennes
  • · Replies 12 ·
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12

Undergrad Error in Thorne's gravitational time dilation explanation in Box 2.4

  • Guillermo Navas
  • · Replies 1 ·
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1

Undergrad Why does Wald's definition of energy give m/γ instead of mγ?

  • aliens123
  • · Replies 15 ·
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High School Why can't we see light that passes an observer between us and the event horizon?

  • Seppo Turunen
  • · Replies 22 ·
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Undergrad An algebraic manipulation in Schutz's book on GR

  • MathematicalPhysicist
  • · Replies 5 ·
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5

Undergrad Active vs passive transformations in the principle of relativity

  • cianfa72
  • · Replies 29 ·
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High School Does special relativity entail matter annihilation?

  • zoltrix
  • · Replies 26 ·
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Undergrad One more talk about the independence of Einstein's SR axioms

  • dextercioby
  • · Replies 71 ·
3
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Undergrad Would an Alcubierre drive create gravitational waves?

  • Grasshopper
  • · Replies 2 ·
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Undergrad Pole-Barn Paradox: Is My Understanding Correct?

  • Grasshopper
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

Graduate Does the Bobrick-Martire warp drive violate chronology protection?

  • James Essig
  • · Replies 6 ·
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6

High School Why doesn't infalling mass seen frozen at the horizon break spherical symmetry?

  • ScruffyNerf
  • · Replies 3 ·
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3

Undergrad Why did Einstein abandon wormholes after his 1935 paper?

  • dsaun777
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

Undergrad Does observer 1 see object 3 moving faster in the x direction?

  • learning
  • · Replies 4 ·
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4

Undergrad What tests can falsify general relativity?

  • francis20520
  • · Replies 118 ·
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Undergrad Why binary systems for gravitational waves?

  • binbagsss
  • · Replies 15 ·
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15

Undergrad Is Scale Factor a Scalar? Sean Carroll Invitation

  • George Keeling
  • · Replies 12 ·
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12

Undergrad Can the Spacetime Interval at a Singularity Change Our Understanding of Time?

  • Grasshopper
  • · Replies 9 ·
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9

Undergrad Correcting General Relativity Effect on Atomic Time

  • phoenix-anna
  • · Replies 12 ·
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12

High School How can B and C both move at c relative to each other if each moves at c away from A?

  • jeremyfiennes
  • · Replies 11 ·
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11

High School Why can a black hole pull in light if nothing moves faster than light?

  • complete_noob
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

Graduate Why Is Time Dilation Considered a Real Phenomenon?

  • mariusmyburg
  • · Replies 61 ·
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Undergrad Is Heart Rate Invariant in Different States of Motion?

  • aclaret
  • · Replies 4 ·
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4

Undergrad Space - time and the illusion of time

  • thegroundhog
  • · Replies 14 ·
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14

Undergrad Cross product in E_u from a 4-form via metric duality

  • aclaret
  • · Replies 4 ·
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4

Graduate GBAR Experiment (CERN) - Genève

  • Marilyn67
  • · Replies 31 ·
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High School Why is the stress-energy tensor zero in the Schwarzschild solution if the Sun has mass?

  • empdee4
  • · Replies 14 ·
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14

Undergrad Doppler effect - can't imagine how the frequency of light can change

  • musicgold
  • · Replies 9 ·
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9

High School Does gravitational time dilation between head and feet explain why objects fall?

  • Involute
  • · Replies 23 ·
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23

Undergrad Does curved spacetime redirect angular momentum to gravitational centers?

  • manolo-mm
  • · Replies 7 ·
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7

High School Is there direct experimental proof that light speed is invariant to observers?

  • georgechen
  • · Replies 33 ·
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Graduate Possible to publish a paper that contradicts Einstein's special relativity?

  • georgechen
  • · Replies 82 ·
3
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High School Why is the speed of light constant for all observers?

  • king123
  • · Replies 8 ·
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8

Undergrad Speed of light not an invariant in GR

  • Pyter
  • · Replies 105 ·
4
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105

Undergrad What do physicists mean by "local degrees of freedom"?

  • willidietomorrow
  • · Replies 11 ·
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11

High School What Links High Velocities, Strong Gravitational Fields, and Time Dilation?

  • Lutz-F
  • · Replies 11 ·
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11

High School Interested in Black Holes, Neutron Stars, and White Dwarf Stars

  • Peter Cole
  • · Replies 39 ·
2
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39

Undergrad General relativity, Electromagnetism and Feynman Diagrams

  • LCSphysicist
  • · Replies 1 ·
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1

Graduate Is gravitomagnetism a limiting case of general relativity?

  • bhobba
  • · Replies 3 ·
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3

Undergrad Does rotation in Gödel spacetime depend on the frame of reference?

  • PeterDonis
  • · Replies 31 ·
2
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31

Graduate What Does a Zero Metric Mean in the Context of Pre-Big Bang Physics?

  • Physics4Funn
  • · Replies 8 ·
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8

High School Do photons travel instantaneously?

  • Stevexyz
  • · Replies 41 ·
2
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41

Undergrad Does Earth's motion through the CMB coincide with the FLWR metric?

  • mitochan
  • · Replies 4 ·
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4

Undergrad Is acceleration absolute or relative - revisited

  • Peter Leeves
  • · Replies 185 ·
7
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185

Graduate Obtain Normal Vector of Bubble Wall in Spacetime

  • John Greger
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

Undergrad Why was Schrodinger's equation for the relativistic wave unsuccessful?

  • LeoKrusty
  • · Replies 1 ·
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1

Undergrad Does string theory falsify the theory of special relativity?

  • Dennis Blewett
  • · Replies 19 ·
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19

Undergrad Can your body survive crossing the event horizon if parts are causally disconnected?

  • arusse02
  • · Replies 13 ·
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13

High School Metric tensor for a uniformly accelerated observer

  • Pyter
  • · Replies 55 ·
2
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55

Undergrad Speed of Light in Different Mediums: Exploring Maxwell Equations

  • Cosmic Lollipop
  • · Replies 7 ·
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7

Undergrad Which came first, E=pc or E=mc²?

  • imsmooth
  • · Replies 67 ·
3
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67

High School Why is gravity called a fundamental force if general relativity says it isn't one?

  • Jupiter60
  • · Replies 44 ·
2
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44

Undergrad Calculating Distance Light Travels Near a Black Hole

  • Haorong Wu
  • · Replies 12 ·
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12

Undergrad Why doesn't a moving object experience relativistic effects in its own frame?

  • JerryF
  • · Replies 83 ·
3
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83

Undergrad Decompose SL(2C) Matrix: Real Parameters from Complex

  • DrDu
  • · Replies 5 ·
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5

Undergrad Why expand curved coordinates to second order in Minkowski coordinates

  • George Keeling
  • · Replies 5 ·
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5

Graduate Is There a Unified Theory Between General Relativity and Electromagnetism?

  • Karimselim1997
  • · Replies 4 ·
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4

Undergrad Why do spacetime interval equations have opposite signs?

  • Thevan
  • · Replies 4 ·
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4

Undergrad Gravitational Waves Emitted by a Binary System

  • lomidrevo
  • · Replies 24 ·
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24

Undergrad Solving GR 2-Body Problem with Summ. of Christoffel Symbols

  • D.S.Beyer
  • · Replies 12 ·
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12

Undergrad Would circumnavigating the Universe allow one way measurement of light's speed?

  • Flatland
  • · Replies 69 ·
3
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69

High School Can you create perpetual motion by converting mass to energy on a tower?

  • faramund
  • · Replies 11 ·
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11

High School Are gravitational redshift from atomic emission and photon transport the same effect?

  • Mickey1
  • · Replies 10 ·
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10

Undergrad How Do Dual Vectors Differ From Regular Vectors in Physics?

  • pixel
  • · Replies 35 ·
2
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35