Related papers: A Graphical Introduction to Special Relativity Bas…
This paper has pedagogical motivation. It is not uncommon that students have great difficulty in accepting the new concepts of standard special relativity, since these seem contrary to common sense. Experience shows that geometrical or…
A century after its formulation by Einstein, it is time to incorporate special relativity early in the physics curriculum. The approach advocated here employs a simple algebraic extension of vector formalism that generates Minkowski…
The special theory of relativity has fundamentally changed our views of space and time. The relativity of simultaneity in particular, and the theory of relativity as a whole, still presents significant difficulty for beginners 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 simple visual representation of Minkowski spacetime appropriate for a student with a background in geometry and algebra is presented. Minkowski spacetime can be modeled with a Euclidean 4-space to yield accurate visualizations as…
We give a critical analysis of the conceptual foundations of special relativity. We formulate a simple operational criterion for distinguishing between noninertial and inertial frames which is introduced prior to geometry. We associate the…
We present visual calculations in special relativity using spacetime diagrams drawn on graph paper that has been rotated by 45 degrees. The rotated lines represent lightlike directions in Minkowski spacetime, and the boxes in the grid…
Special Relativity is taught to physics sophomores at Johns Hopkins University in a series of eight lectures. Lecture 1 covers the principle of relativity and the derivation of the Lorentz transform. Lecture 2 covers length contraction and…
I review, some of the algebraic and geometric structures that underlie the theory of Special Relativity. This includes a discussion of relativity as a symmetry principle, derivations of the Lorentz group, its composition law, its Lie…
This work analyzes the difficulties in learning and teaching Einstein's theory of special relativity. An extensive bibliographic review has been performed, considering articles published in the most relevant journals on science education,…
Using spacetime algebra, the geometric algebra of spacetime, the general problem of relativistic addition of velocities is addressed. The successive application of non-collinear Lorentz boosts is then studied in Minkowski spacetime. Even…
Since the main open problem of contemporary physics is to find a unified description of the four interactions, we present a possible scenario which, till now only at the classical level, is able to englobe experiments ranging from…
In order to ask for future concepts of relativity, one has to build upon the original concepts instead of the nowadays common formalism only, and as such recall and reconsider some of its roots in geometry. So in order to discuss 3-space…
This article shows how to express relativistic concepts in a visual manner using the full power of hyperbolic trigonometric functions. Minkowski diagrams in energy-momentum space are used in conjunction with hyperbolic triangles. Elegant…
In these notes we give an introductory unified treatment to the topics of special relativity, Lorentz transformations and the Lorentz group, Einstein velocitiy addition, and gyrogroups and gyrovector spaces. An effort has been made to…
This article provides a gentle, visual introduction to the basic concepts of differential geometry appropriate for students familiar with special relativity. Visual methods are used to explain basics of differential geometry and build…
Starting with two light clocks to derive time dilation expression, as many textbooks do, and then adding a third one, we work on relativistic spacetime coordinates relations for some simple events as emission, reflection and return of light…
A two-dimensional Minkowski spacetime diagram is neatly represented on a Euclidean ordinary plane. However the Euclidean lengths of the lines on the diagram do not correspond to the true values of physical quantities in spacetime, except…
I apply the algebraic framework introduced in arXiv:1101.4542v3[math.MG] to Minkowski (pseudo-Euclidean) spaces in 2, 3, and 4 dimensions. The exposition follows the template established in arXiv:1307.2917[math.MG] for Euclidean spaces. The…
This survey paper is divided into two parts. In the first (section 2), I give a brief account of the structure of classical relativity theory. In the second (section 3), I discuss three special topics: (i) the status of the relative…