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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 events ...
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.
Hermann Minkowski (1864–1909) found that the theory of special relativity could be best understood as a four-dimensional space, since known as the Minkowski spacetime.. In physics, Minkowski space (or Minkowski spacetime) (/ m ɪ ŋ ˈ k ɔː f s k i,-ˈ k ɒ f-/ [1]) is the main mathematical description of spacetime in the absence of gravitation.
where Δt is the time interval between two co-local events (i.e. happening at the same place) for an observer in some inertial frame (e.g. ticks on their clock), known as the proper time, Δt′ is the time interval between those same events, as measured by another observer, inertially moving with velocity v with respect to the former observer ...
where t i is an initial time (τ i is the proper initial time), t f a final time (τ f is the proper final time), and H is the expansion parameter, also called the Hubble parameter. The BGV theorem states that for any spacetime where >, then the spacetime is geodesically past-incomplete.
In special relativity, just as space and time are different aspects of a more comprehensive entity called spacetime, energy and momentum are merely different aspects of a unified, four-dimensional quantity that physicists call four-momentum. In consequence, if energy is a source of gravity, momentum must be a source as well.
Imaginary time is a mathematical representation of time that appears in some approaches to special relativity and quantum mechanics. It finds uses in certain cosmological theories. Mathematically, imaginary time is real time which has undergone a Wick rotation so that its coordinates are multiplied by the imaginary unit i .
Spacetime topology is the topological structure of spacetime, a topic studied primarily in general relativity.This physical theory models gravitation as the curvature of a four dimensional Lorentzian manifold (a spacetime) and the concepts of topology thus become important in analysing local as well as global aspects of spacetime.