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For over a century Minkowskian spacetime has dominated discussions of space contraction and time dilation within special relativity. Brown and Pooley have called into question both the assumptions of Minkowski and the effects his presumed…
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…
In the special theory of relativity, Lorentz invariance is extended in Minkowski spacetime from ideal inertial observers to actual observers by means of the hypothesis of locality, which postulates that accelerated observers are always…
Simple physical models of a measuring rod and of a clock are used to demonstrate the contraction of objects and clock retardation in special relativity. It is argued that the models could help in promoting student understanding of special…
We present a comprehensive introduction to the kinematics of special relativity based on Minkowski diagrams and provide a graphical alternative to each and every topic covered in a standard introductory sequence. Compared to existing…
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…
The development of both special and general relativity is accomplished in a series of 6 papers using a simple approach. The purpose is to explain the how and why of relativity to a broad public, and to be useful for students of physics by…
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…
Theory of Relativity (Special and General) is one of the most influential theories of the 20th century and has changed the way we view the world. It is part of many undergraduate curriculums and it is often suggested that it should be…
The shortening of bodies in the direction of motion, Lorentz contraction, follows from the solution of Maxwell's equations. Moving light clocks will tick slower than those at rest because the speed of light does not depend on a source of…
In this pedagogical article, we explore a powerful language for describing the notion of spacetime and particle dynamics intrinsic to a given fundamental physical theory, focusing on special relativity and its Newtonian limit. The starting…
The principles of the special theory of relativity are extremely simple. A knowledge of the Pythagorean theorem and an ability to perform the simplest algebraic operations are sufficient to be conversant with the kinematics of the special…
The special theory of relativity teaches us that, although distinct inertial frames perceive the same dynamical laws, space and time intervals differ in value. We revisit the problem of time contraction using the paradigmatic model of a…
With special relativity, we seem to be facing a conundrum. It is a very well-tested theory; in this way, the Minkowski spacetime must be "capturing" essential features of space and time. However, its geometry seems to be incompatible with…
Evaluation of the additive constants in the space-time Lorentz transformation equations required, according to Einstein, to correctly describe synchronised clocks at different spatial locations, reveals the spurious and unphysical nature of…
Special relativity turns out to be more than coordinate transformations in which the constancy of the speed of light plays the central role between two inertial reference frames. Special relativity, in essence, is a theory of…
Space-time intervals corresponding to different events on the worldline of any ponderable object (for example a clock) are time-like. In consequence, in the analysis of any space-time experiment involving clocks only the region for $c\Delta…
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…
Minkowski space serves as a framework for the theoretical constructions that deal with manifestations of relativistic effects in physical phenomena. But neither Minkowski himself nor the subsequent developers of the relativity theory have…
The conventional discussion of the observed distortions of space and time in Special Relativity (the Lorentz-Fitzgerald Contraction and Time Dilatation) is extended by considering observations, from a stationary frame, of : (i) objects…