Related papers: Students' difficulties in understanding the basic …
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…
In a foregoing paper, gravity has been interpreted as the pressure force exerted on matter at the scale of elementary particles by a perfect fluid. Under the condition that Newtonian gravity must be recovered in the incompressible case, a…
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…
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…
It is widely hoped that quantum gravity will shed light on the question of the origin of time in physics. The currently dominant approaches to a candidate quantum theory of gravity have naturally evolved from general relativity, on the one…
General relativity describes gravitation in terms of the geometry of spacetime. It predicts the existence of gravitational waves (GWs) that stretch and compress spacetime and were detected recently by state-of-the-art interferometer…
A argument is described for how deformed or doubly special relativity may arise in the semiclassical limit of a quantum theory of gravity. We consider a generic quantum theory of gravity coupled to matter, from which we use only the…
The nature of 'time', 'space' and 'reality' are to large extent dependent on our interpretation of Special (SRT) and General Relativity Theory (GRT). In SRT essentially two distinct interpretations exist; the "geometrical" interpretation by…
In this paper I argue for a reassessment of special relativity. The fundamental theory of relativity applicable in this Universe has to be consistent with the existence of the massive Universe, and with the effects of its gravitational…
The mathematical treatment and graphical representation of Special Relativity (SR) are well established, yet carry deep implications that remain hard to visualize. This paper presents a new graphical interpretation of the geometry of SR…
Both the basic educational contents for students and study programs for science teachers include several topics in physics and astronomy, from the simplest ones to others as advanced as nuclear fusion to explain stellar evolution and…
The space-time of modern physics is tailored on light. We rigorously construct the basic entities needed by kinematics: geometry of the physical space and time, using as tool electromagnetic waves, and particularly light-rays. After such a…
General Relativity (GR) remains the cornerstone of gravitational physics, providing remarkable success in describing a wide range of astrophysical and cosmological phenomena. However, several challenges underscore the urgent need to explore…
Quantum gravity--the marriage of quantum physics with general relativity--is bound to contain deep and important lessons for the nature of physical time. Some of these lessons shall be canvassed here, particularly as they arise from quantum…
Doubly special relativity has been studied for the last twenty years as a way to go beyond the special relativistic kinematics, trying to capture residual effects of a quantum gravity theory. In particular, in doubly special relativity the…
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…
Contemporary relativity theory is restricted in two points: (1) a use of the Riemannian space-time geometry and (2) a use of inadequate (nonrelativistic) concepts. Reasons of these restrictions are analysed in [1]. Eliminating these…
One of the objectives of the undergraduate physics curriculum is for students to become aware of the connections between the fundamental principles of classical physics and their personal experience. Nonetheless, numerous studies have shown…
Our conventional understanding of space-time, as well as our notion of geometry, break down once we attempt to describe the very early stages of the evolution of our universe. The extreme physical conditions near the Big Bang necessitate an…
Time is absolute in standard quantum theory and dynamical in general relativity. The combination of both theories into a theory of quantum gravity leads therefore to a "problem of time". In my essay I shall investigate those consequences…