I see how you used Minkowski geometry to formulate the SR equations. But my point is that it is much more convincing to start at the premise that Physics does not change, and deduce from there that the geometry of spacetime is Minkowski, than to start by assuming that it follows a particular...
Really? Isn't the fundamental principal of SR that the laws of physics hold in any inertial frame, or that it is impossible to distinguish one inertial frame from another, physically? From here, we arrive at the invariance of the spacetime interval, and from there, the Lorentz transformations...
Hi, I was reading the thread previously posted on faster than light, I don't know why it's been locked. I didn't understand this myself. What does it mean to say there seem to be ways for something to go faster than light... but not convey information?
What about this arrangement: Consider...
Okay, you were right in your initial post, you have to analyse forces on a body. I'll illustrate by example. Let's say we're pushing a block on a table, which creates friction.
Now choose a body. Let's start with the block. Let's say we're pushing the block from East to West, relative to the...
I appreciate your help, but I do find spacetime diagrams to be a little artificial, in that mostly you can only draw them correctly once you have already figured out how things are supposed to be, so the only insight you gain is visual. A little bit like saying x2+y2=1 when plotted on a graph is...
I'm still not clear on this. Here's why:
If two events happen at the same place and the same time, aren't they still two different events, occurring at the same point in spacetime? For example if a particle collides with another particle, that's one event. It so happens that at the same time...
Your responses appear to be correct and complete, assuming of course you're dealing with the standard three dimensional euclidean geometry.
The drawing should not be so important, as long as you understand what is being drawn. You could try using a coordinate system for further clarity.
Hi, I was reading the book "Spacetime Physics" by Taylor/Wheeler. In their discourse on the relativity of simultaneity, the example they have used is Einstein's Train Paradox. See and also the attachment for the Train Paradox.
My question is this: The analysis of what the train observer(TO)...