Spacetime Articles

Tag Archive for: spacetime

Velocity Time Function

Revisiting the Velocity-Time Function

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Kinematics: The Velocity-Time FunctionAuthor's Preface: A Collaborative Approach to Lesson Development The intention behind what I hope will be…
infinite universe

Open, Flat, or Closed Universe: What Curvature Tells Us

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Direct answer: Cosmologists classify the universe as open, flat, or closed based on spatial curvature. Current cosmic microwave background (CMB) measurements…
Kerr Spacetime

Geodesic Congruences in FRW, Schwarzschild and Kerr Spacetimes

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Introduction The theory of geodesic congruences is extensively covered in many textbooks (see References); what follows in the introduction is a brief…
tolman law beginner

Tolman Law in a Nutshell

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The Tolman law describes how the temperature in a fixed gravitational field depends on the position (see https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.04106 for a pedagogic…
block universe time illusion

Does the Block Universe of Physics Mean Time is an Illusion?

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I have written many Insights (and coauthored an entire book) explaining how the puzzles, problems, and paradoxes of modern physics can be attributed to…
symmetric spacetime

Slowly Lowering an Object in a Static, Spherically Symmetric Spacetime

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In the first two articles in this series, we looked at the Einstein Field Equation and Maxwell's Equations in a static, spherically symmetric spacetime.…
sun_getting_smaller

MESSENGER Detects Sun’s Mass Loss and Solar Expansion

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Paper and context Paper discussion: Solar system expansion and strong equivalence principle as seen by the NASA MESSENGER mission. Antonio Genova, Erwan…
journeycosmos3

Learn About the FLRW Metric and The Friedmann Equation

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Previous Chapter: A Journey Into the Cosmos – The Friedmann Equation                Chapter 2- FLRW Metric and The Friedmann Equation In…
gps1

The Schwarzschild Metric: GPS Satellites

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 A Global Positioning System (GPS) device gives your precise location by receiving light pulses from satellites with synchronized clocks then…
qft_spacetime

Learn Spacetime in Mathematical Quantum Field Theory

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The following is one chapter in a series on Mathematical Quantum Field Theory.The previous chapter is 1. Geometry.The next chapter is 3. Fields  2.…
SchwarzschildGeometry4

The Schwarzschild Geometry: Physically Reasonable?

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 In the last article, we looked at various counterintuitive features of the Schwarzschild spacetime geometry, as illustrated in the Kruskal-Szekeres…
spacetimetetrad

Tetrad Formalism: Ricci Coefficients & Riemann Tensor

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Tetrads and Notation A spacetime is often described in terms of a tetrad field, that is, by giving a set of basis vectors at each point. Let the vectors…

Learn About Relativity on Rotated Graph Paper

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This Insight is a follow-up to my earlier tutorial Insight (Spacetime Diagrams of Light Clocks). I gave it a different name because I am placing more…

Learn About Spacetime Diagrams of Light Clocks

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We demonstrate a method for constructing spacetime diagrams for special relativity on graph paper that has been rotated by 45 degrees. Many quantitative…
spacetime4

Struggles With the Continuum: Point Particles and the Electromagnetic Field

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 In these posts, we're seeing how our favorite theories of physics deal with the idea that space and time are a continuum, with points described…
spacetime

Is Spacetime Really a Continuum?

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  Introduction Is spacetime really a continuum?  That is, can points of spacetime really be described---at least locally---by lists of four…