Understanding Lorentz Transformation: Explained and Recommended Readings

AI Thread Summary
The discussion centers around understanding Lorentz transformations and the need for appropriate educational resources. Participants emphasize the importance of providing specific information about one's educational background and the context in which they are studying special relativity. A high school student preparing for an astronomy Olympiad seeks help with cosmology and kinematics in special relativity but initially fails to specify their level of study. Suggestions for suitable books include "Relativity for Poets," which offers a non-mathematical approach, and "A Traveler's Guide to Spacetime" by Thomas Moore, which is deemed appropriate for high school students. The conversation highlights the necessity of a solid foundational understanding before tackling complex topics and encourages asking specific questions related to problem-solving for better assistance.
Sobhan
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I can't understand the transformation can anyone explain it to me.and suggest a good book on it.
 
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You do realize that you are essentially asking people to write you part of a textbook? You will get a lot more out of Physics Forums if you read a real textbook first and then ask about anything specific which you find problematic or unclear.
 
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My problem is that I don't know a good book to read.
 
What is a good book depends a lot on your current level in physics. A physics university student is going to find books written for people who have not seen physics since high school too simplistic and so on. You are really giving too little information.

Depending on your level, you might also have to come to terms with the fact that without several years of intensive studies, you may not really understand it.
 
Pursuing further Orodruin's tack ...

Where have you seen Lorentz transformations? In a sophomore/junior U.S. modern physics course (physicists call these boosts along the x-axis)? In a (post)grad course on quantum field theory? Somewhere else?
 
There is a course in my school about the special relativity,and i can not use this transformation correctly to solve problems,so i wanted to have deeper studies on it.
 
Sobhan said:
There is a course in my school about the special relativity,and i can not use this transformation correctly to solve problems,so i wanted to have deeper studies on it.

Again: please give more information! Is this a High School course which happens to cover some SR? Is this a college course about General Physics which covers some SR? Is this a dedicated SR course? In which grade are you?
What are the problems you're having with them. Can you give us a problem you cannot do and tell us why you cannot do it?
 
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Sobhan said:
in my school

But you have not even told us what kind of school you are going to, which makes it completely impossible for us to guess your level. If you want help you need to provide sufficient information, otherwise we would just be guessing wildly and people here are not the kind of people who like doing so.
 
well i am going to high school and studying for astronomy Olympiad and one of the subjects i have got to go through is cosmology.
 
  • #10
So I suspect you mean boosts restricted to one particular axis.
 
  • #11
You will then want a very non-mathematical treatment. You could try something like Relativity for poets by @bcrowell . It is a non-mathematical treatment of relativity which you can download for free.

@bcrowell : I just noticed you have a bad page break between pages 55 and 57. Page 56 is a set of figures and page 57 only contains the words "earth's surface", just thought you might want to know.
 
  • #12
well what i want more is kinematics in special relativity
 
  • #13
A short, good book that might be suitable for good high school students is "A Traveler's Guide to Spacetime: An Introduction to the Special Theory of Relativity" by Thomas Moore.
 
  • #14
I saw a question which i want to check if i am right or not.
the question is about relativity of simultaneity and it asks to show the Einstein's train thought experiment result will be the same if we use something else instead of light,what i did is this:
 

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  • #15
Ia the above writing understandable?
 
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