What is the difference between time-like and space-like separation?

[azatkgz]

Please,can you simply explain the meaning of terms time-like,space-like,time-like separated,space-like separated.I searched in web for an hour but all explanations are very complicated.I didn't understand anything.

IS the time-like separated means just difference in time of two points in some frame at dx=0 at this frame?

 

[neutrino]

If two events are time-like separated, then an object can travel from the first event to the second event with a velocity v<c.

Events separated by a time-like interval are always arranged in the same order in time. That is, if an observer O deduces that event A happens before B, then another observer O', moving relative to O, will also come to the same conclusion. There is a before and after. And there is a possibility that that event A will influence event B. (Cause and Effect.)

In a space-like interval, an object can be present at both events only if it travels at a velocity v>c. Since no object with mass can travel at such a speed, the two events are not causally connected. Also, there is no particular order between A and B(in time) if they are space-like separated.

On a spacetime diagram, for time-like events A and B, B will be within the light-cone of A and vice-versa. For space-like intervals, one event is outside the light-cone of the other.

 

[azatkgz]

Thank you very much.It seems to that I understood something.