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The Lorentz factor or Lorentz term (also known as the gamma factor [1]) is a dimensionless quantity expressing how much the measurements of time, length, and other physical properties change for an object while it moves.
Below are few ultrarelativistic approximations when .The rapidity is denoted : Motion with constant proper acceleration: d ≈ e aτ /(2a), where d is the distance traveled, a = dφ/dτ is proper acceleration (with aτ ≫ 1), τ is proper time, and travel starts at rest and without changing direction of acceleration (see proper acceleration for more details).
The quantity on the left is called the spacetime interval between events a 1 = (t 1, x 1, y 1, z 1) and a 2 = (t 2, x 2, y 2, z 2). The interval between any two events, not necessarily separated by light signals, is in fact invariant, i.e., independent of the state of relative motion of observers in different inertial frames, as is shown using ...
The following notations are used very often in special relativity: Lorentz factor = 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.
However, when other experiments that exclude the Galilean-invariant theories are considered (i.e. the Ives–Stilwell experiment, various refutations of emission theories and refutations of complete aether dragging), Lorentz-invariant theories and thus special relativity are the only theories that remain viable.
A first step to explaining the Michelson and Morley experiment's null result was found in the FitzGerald–Lorentz contraction hypothesis, now simply called length contraction or Lorentz contraction, first proposed by George FitzGerald (1889) in a letter to same journal that published the Michelson-Morley paper, as "almost the only hypothesis ...
where the partial derivatives may be written in various ways, see 4-gradient. The first equation listed above corresponds to both Gauss's Law (for β = 0) and the Ampère-Maxwell Law (for β = 1, 2, 3). The second equation corresponds to the two remaining equations, Gauss's law for magnetism (for β = 0) and Faraday's Law (for β = 1, 2, 3).
The result disproves any aether drag; in combination with other experiments – disproving the stationary aether like the Michelson–Morley experiment – it proves the Lorentz transformations correct. 1925 – Llewelyn Thomas discovers Thomas precession, which can be explained by the effect described earlier by Silberstein and later by Wigner.