(special) relativistic effects made clear in animation

[Thanaton]

Heey everybody,First my excuses, I'm not a natural English speaker, so there will be some languistical mistakes in my question .

Now my question: I'm going to make a C-program to show relativistic effects. I would prefer to make a short 'movie' and then 'convert' it in the C-program so it shows relaticistic effects. As we all now special relativity causes the space to look strange: In the middle of a picture everything will be compressed together, and at the sides everything will be blown up. So the question is: How can I calculate this compression / blowing up so that I can input this in my C-program?

Anybody knows?Thanks in advance! :shy:
Thanaton

 

[robphy]

http://www.anu.edu.au/Physics/Savage/RTR/
http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0701200
might help you. It looks like nice material.

See also:
http://www.cs.indiana.edu/~hanson/papers//sig01-15cdrom.pdf
from
http://www.cs.indiana.edu/~hanson/

However, I'm not convinced that relativistic effects are made clear (to beginners) by placing emphasis on visual/optical effects [which is an additional layer of unfamiliarity that a new student would also have to understand and appreciate].