Related papers: Spatial Directions, Anisotropy and Special Relativ…
A challenge in teaching about special relativity is that a number of the theory's effects are at odds with the intuition of classical physics, as well as student's everyday experience. The relativity of simultaneity, time dilation and…
Even though the concepts of time and space are basic concepts of physics, they have not been vouchsafed a constructive definition. As to space, this is no wonder because a correct notion of space cannot be formed in the frame of the…
Selleri's paradox, based on an analysis of rotating frames, appears to show that the speed of light in an inertial system is not normally isotropic. This in turn seems at odds with the second postulate of special relativity requiring a…
The conceptual definition and understanding of the nature of time, both qualitatively and quantitatively is of the utmost difficulty and importance, and plays a fundamental role in physics. Physical systems seem to evolve in paths of…
Special relativity is no longer a new revolutionary theory but a firmly established cornerstone of modern physics. The teaching of special relativity, however, still follows its presentation as it unfolded historically, trying to convince…
Looking at current proposals of so-called `warp drive spacetimes', they appear to employ General Relativity only at an elementary level. A number of strong restrictions are imposed such as flow-orthogonality of the spacetime foliation,…
Translational invariance requires that physical predictions are independent of the choice of spatial coordinate system used. The time dilatation effect of special relativity is shown to manifestly respect this invariance. Consideration of…
This paper, which is meant to be a tribute to Minkowski's geometrical insight, rests on the idea that the basic observed symmetries of spacetime homogeneity and of isotropy of space, which are displayed by the spacetime manifold in the…
A modern elementary introduction to special relativity for advanced school children or first-year university students, in Russian. I try to demonstrate that relativity does not contradict common sense; on the contrary, it follows from…
A phenomenological explanation is presented for the physics of aberration, which is in contrast with special relativity physics. The effect of relativity is identified with an effect due to the velocity of observation being affected by the…
Physical time intervals are attributes of single physical object whereas physical space intervals are a relational attribute of two physical objects. Some consequences of the breaking of the space-time exchange symmetry inherent in the…
I investigate spacetime singularities from the point of view of the wavefunction of the universe. In order to extend the classical notion of geodesic incompleteness one has to include the proper time of an observer as a degree of freedom in…
Einstein's special theory of relativity starts with assumptions about how observations conducted in relatively moving inertial frames must compare. From these assumptions, conclusions can be drawn regarding the laws of physics in any one…
The possibility that global discrete dilation invariance is a fundamental symmetry principle of nature is explored. If the discrete self-similarity observed in nature is exact, then the Principle of General Covariance needs to be broadened…
Anisotropic Special Relativity (ASR) is the relativistic theory of nature with a preferred direction in space-time. By relaxing the \textit{full-isotropy} constraint on space-time to the \textit{preference of one direction}, we obtain a…
We study in this paper different topos-theoretical approaches to the problem of construction of General Theory of Relativity. In general case the resulting space-time theory will be non-classical, different from that of the usual Einstein…
Based on the principle of relativity and the postulate of invariant speed and length, we propose the theory of special relativity with cosmological constant ${\cal SR}_{c,R}$ if the invariant length whose square is the inverse of the…
An approach to special relativity is outlined which emphasizes the wave and field mechanisms which physically produce the relativistic effects, with the goal of making them seem more natural to students by connecting more explicitly with…
The incorporation of an adequate discrete expansion to the formalism of the special relativity that does not allow gravitational acceleration unravels unexplored phenomena. This extension takes into account consequences of a small variation…
We investigate how deformations of special relativity in momentum space can be extended to position space in a consistent way, such that the dimensionless contraction between wave-vector and coordinate-vector remains invariant. By using a…