How was the Minkowski metric derived in special relativity?

[Emilie.Jung]

In special relativity, we can prove that the metric is -+++ for all observers and that is by making use out of lorentz invariance. Some on this forum say that it comes as a result of constancy of light and others say that Minkowski predated einstein in making that metric, which was confusing. So, how would we make sure how was that metric found?

 

[bcrowell]

Some on this forum say that it comes as a result of constancy of light and others say that Minkowski predated einstein in making that metric, which was confusing.

The same fact can be proved in more than one way, and the same theory can be described using more than one axiomatization. Are you asking how it was first done historically? That's probably going to be ambiguous because the terminology and notation of tensors wasn't applied to this subject until long after 1905.