Lorentz transformations

1. Oct 31, 2004

Alan Tua

Hi , I'd like to know if anybody could help me understand the following: I was following the following derivation of the Lorentz transformations (http://vishnu.mth.uct.ac.za/omei/gr/chap1/node4.html) and i managed to understand everything except possibly the most crucial step....how does one get the transformations: c(tbar)=(ipsilon)ct+(Beta)x and xbar=(lambda)ct+(delta)x ??? ... i m an A level student with pure maths and physics (here in malta we only do 2 subjects at a level ) if any body could explain to me how one gets to the transformations or from where to find an explanation i d be super-grateful...thanks

2. Oct 31, 2004

jcsd

The equations you refer to are just genralized linear transformation. We know that the trnafomrtaions that we have to find must be of this form, so it's just a case of finding the unknowns.

Also, it's not upsilon it's gamma.

3. Oct 31, 2004

robphy

On a side note, the "worldline of particle moving with speed v<c" on
http://vishnu.mth.uct.ac.za/omei/gr/chap1/node4.html
is incorrect. The tangents in the first part of the worldline are incorrectly drawn as spacelike.

4. Nov 1, 2004

Alan Tua

Hi, thanks for such a quick reply....i got it now,,, thanks again