Related papers: Proving the Relativistic Rotation Paradox
We review why the Thomas rotation is a crucial facet of special relativity, that is just as fundamental, and just as "unintuitive" and "paradoxical", as such traditional effects as length contraction, time dilation, and the ambiguity of…
This work gives an explicit exact expression for the Thomas precession arising in the framework of Special Theory of Relativity as the spatial rotation resulting from two subsequence Lorentz boosts. The final result for the orthogonal…
The circular twin paradox and Thomas Precession are presented in a way that makes both accessible to students in introductory relativity courses. Both are discussed by examining what happens during travel around a polygon and then in the…
A simple, though rarely considered, thought experiment on relativistic rotation is described in which internal inconsistencies in the theory of relativity seem to arise. These apparent inconsistencies are resolved by appropriate insight…
We present a didactic derivation of the special theory of relativity in which Lorentz transformations are `discovered' as symmetry transformations of the Klein-Gordon equation. The interpretation of Lorentz boosts as transformations to…
The special theory of relativity is the foundation of modern physics, but its unusual postulate of invariant vacuum speed of light results in a number of plausible paradoxes. This situation leads to radical criticisms and suspicions against…
The purpose of this letter is to show, on the one hand, how the so-called train paradox could be resolved directly without appealing to non-linear Lorentz transformations. The resolution is established in the most general case of…
A relativistic particle undergoing successive boosts which are non collinear will experience a rotation of its coordinate axes with respect to the boosted frame. This rotation of coordinate axes is caused by a relativistic phenomenon called…
Using the standard formalism of Lorentz transformation of the special theory of relativity, we derive the exact expression of the Thomas precession rate for an electron in a classical circular orbit around the nucleus of a hydrogen-like…
We here deduce Lorentz transformation (LT) as a member of a class of time-dependent coordinate transformations, complementary to those already known as spatial translations and rotations. This exercise validates the principle of physical…
The famous twin paradox of the Special Theory of Relativity by Einstein (1905) is revisited and revised. This paradox is not a paradox in the true sense of a paradox but a reflection of a misunderstanding of the problem and the Principle of…
In order to generalize the relativistic notion of boost to the case of non inertial particles and to general relativity, we come back to the definition of Lie group of Lorentz matrices and its Lie algebra and we study how this group acts on…
A submarine moving at relativistic horizontal velocity sinks in Earth's rest frame due to length contraction while appearing to float in its own frame. Using spacetime geometry and the Lorentz transformations, we show that the resolution…
In the standard formulation of the twin paradox an accelerated twin considers himself as at rest and his brother as moving. Hence, when formulating the twin paradox, one uses the general principle of relativity, i.e. that accelerated and…
Solving special relativity paradoxes requires rigorous analysis of event timing, due to relative simultaneity in consequence of the Lorentz transformation. Since clock synchronisation is a convention in special theory of relativity, instead…
We investigate the effects of the repeated application of Lorentz-boosts to the four momentum of a photon in the transverse direction and observe that this can take us to a reference frame in which the direction of the photon's momentum is…
This preprint concerns a mathematically rigorous treatment of an interesting physical phenomenon in relativity theory. We would like to draw the reader's attention particularly to the abstract mathematical formalism of relativity (which was…
A detailed re-examination of the seminal paper on special relativity, taking into account recent work on the physical interpretation of the space-time Lorentz transformation as well as the modern understanding of classical elecromagnetism…
The distinction between the real positions of moving objects in a single reference frame and the apparent positions of objects at rest in one inertial frame and viewed from another, as predicted by the space-time Lorentz Transformations, is…
We look afresh at the deduction of the "Lorentz contraction" of a "rod" from the Lorentz transformation equations of the special theory of relativity. We show that under special conditions, which include acceleration of the "rod", length…