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A different term, proper distance, provides an invariant measure whose value is the same for all observers. Proper distance is analogous to proper time. The difference is that the proper distance is defined between two spacelike-separated events (or along a spacelike path), while the proper time is defined between two timelike-separated events ...
On this usage, comoving and proper distances are numerically equal at the current age of the universe, but will differ in the past and in the future; if the comoving distance to a galaxy is denoted , the proper distance () at an arbitrary time is simply given by = where () is the scale factor (e.g. Davis & Lineweaver 2004). [2]
Proper time can only be defined for timelike paths through spacetime which allow for the construction of an accompanying set of physical rulers and clocks. The same formalism for spacelike paths leads to a measurement of proper distance rather than proper time. For lightlike paths, there exists no concept of proper time and it is undefined as ...
Comoving distance factors out the expansion of the universe, which gives a distance that does not change in time due to the expansion of space (though this may change due to other, local factors, such as the motion of a galaxy within a cluster); the comoving distance is the proper distance at the present time. [citation needed]
is the time between two events as measured in the moving reference frame in which they occur at the same place (e.g. two ticks on a moving clock); it is called the proper time between the two events; t is the time between these same two events, but as measured in the stationary reference frame;
A fuller explanation of the concept of coordinate time arises from its relations with proper time and with clock synchronization. Synchronization, along with the related concept of simultaneity, has to receive careful definition in the framework of general relativity theory, because many of the assumptions inherent in classical mechanics and classical accounts of space and time had to be removed.
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Time: The interval between two events present on the worldline of a single clock is called proper time, an important invariant of special relativity. As the origin of the muon at A and the encounter with Earth at D is on the muon's worldline, only a clock comoving with the muon and thus resting in S′ can indicate the proper time T′ 0 =AD.