Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
e. In physics, spacetime, also called the space-time continuum, is a mathematical model that fuses the three dimensions of space and the one dimension of time into a single four-dimensional continuum. Spacetime diagrams are useful in visualizing and understanding relativistic effects, such as how different observers perceive where and when ...
Spacetime is equipped with an indefinite non-degenerate bilinear form, called the Minkowski metric, [2] the Minkowski norm squared or Minkowski inner product depending on the context. [nb 2] The Minkowski inner product is defined so as to yield the spacetime interval between two events when given their coordinate difference vector as an ...
A spacetime diagram is a graphical illustration of locations in space at various times, especially in the special theory of relativity. Spacetime diagrams can show the geometry underlying phenomena like time dilation and length contraction without mathematical equations. The history of an object's location through time traces out a line or ...
The reason s 2 is called the interval and not s is that s 2 can be positive, zero or negative. Spacetime intervals may be classified into three distinct types, based on whether the temporal separation (c 2 Δt 2) or the spatial separation (Δr 2) of the two events is greater: time-like, light-like or space-like.
Schwarzschild coordinates. In the theory of Lorentzian manifolds, spherically symmetric spacetimes admit a family of nested round spheres. In such a spacetime, a particularly important kind of coordinate chart is the Schwarzschild chart, a kind of polar spherical coordinate chart on a static and spherically symmetric spacetime, which is adapted ...
Lorentz factor. {\displaystyle \gamma = {\frac {1} {\sqrt {1-\beta ^ {2}}}}} where and v is the relative velocity between two inertial frames. For two frames at rest, γ = 1, and increases with relative velocity between the two inertial frames. As the relative velocity approaches the speed of light, γ → ∞. Time dilation (different times t ...
Writing the coordinates in column vectors and the Minkowski metric η as a square matrix ′ = [′ ′ ′ ′], = [], = [] the spacetime interval takes the form (superscript T denotes transpose) = = ′ ′ and is invariant under a Lorentz transformation ′ = where Λ is a square matrix which can depend on parameters.
In relativistic physics, the Born coordinate chart is a coordinate chart for (part of) Minkowski spacetime, the flat spacetime of special relativity. It is often used to analyze the physical experience of observers who ride on a ring or disk rigidly rotating at relativistic speeds, so called Langevin observers.