Why Does t' Include vx/c² in Lorentz Transformations?

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SUMMARY

The discussion focuses on the Lorentz transformations, specifically the equation t' = λ(t - vx/c²), where t' represents the time coordinate of an event in the moving reference frame S'. The term vx/c² arises from the principles of special relativity, which state that time is not absolute and varies between different inertial frames. The transformation equations, including x' = λ(x - vt), illustrate how both space and time coordinates are affected by relative motion, emphasizing that t' is not simply a scaled version of t.

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Pochen Liu
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Homework Statement
I don't understand how they were derived
Relevant Equations
*as attached
I understand x' = λ(x - vt) but why does t' = λ(t - vx/c^2)? where does the vx/c^2 come from?
and honestly I don't understand what t' is.

because from what I understand is that t' is the length of time t as observed from the reference frame S'. which means t' = t*λ?
 

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This Wikipedia page gives a number of different derivations. The easiest (for me) to understand is the one called "Spherical wavefronts of light", which basically follows from the assumption that the speed of light is the same in all reference frames.
 
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Pochen Liu said:
Problem Statement: I don't understand how they were derived
Relevant Equations: *as attached

I understand x' = λ(x - vt) but why does t' = λ(t - vx/c^2)? where does the vx/c^2 come from?
and honestly I don't understand what t' is.

because from what I understand is that t' is the length of time t as observed from the reference frame S'. which means t' = t*λ?

It's better to say that ##t'## is the time coordinate of an event in frame S'.

In classical physics we have always ##t' =t##. So, no one bothered ever to write ##t'##, because ##t'## is always the same as ##t##. In SR, of course, the time coordinate is not the same in different frames and, indeed, the Lorentz Transformation transforms the time coordinate from one frame to another.
 
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