Related papers: Einstein's mirror revisited
We developed a formula for the law of reflection of a plane-polarized light beam from an inclined flat mirror in uniform rectilinear motion by a direct application of the Huygens-Fresnel principle. Applying the obtained formula and the…
We present an elementary analysis of the effects on light reflected from a uniformly moving mirror by using the photon picture of light and the conservation laws for energy and momentum of the system photon-mirror. Such a dynamical approach…
The formula for the frequency shift of a plane-polarized light wave reflected from a uniformly moving mirror is derived directly from the constant light speed postulate and the basic principles of wave optics. Unlike the original derivation…
A special case of the relativistic Doppler effect, which occurs when light reflects from a moving mirror, is discussed. The classic formula for the Doppler shift is derived in a fully non-relativistic fashion using basic facts from…
The established way of looking at special relativity is based on Einstein postulates: the principle of relativity and the constancy of the velocity of light. In the most general geometric approach to the theory of special relativity, the…
Kipping (2017) discusses relativistic reflection from light sails. As an extension to this work, we present a new formula for relativistic reflection of sunlight from a light sail moving at a velocity inclined at an arbitrary angle, using…
In this work, I have derived the equation of the curve obtained on reflection of a point object in an arbitrary curved mirror if the object and the mirror are placed on the 2D Cartesian plane. I have used only the basic laws of reflection…
We describe the exact solution of Einstein's equation corresponding to a static homogenous distribution of matter with plane symmetry lying below $z=0$. We study the geodesics in it and we show that this simple spacetime exhibits very…
The Lorentz transformation is entirely derived from length contraction, itself established through the known light-clock thought experiment . This makes the derivation accessible to beginning students once Eintein's two postulates have been…
The Lorentz Transformation is derived from only three simple postulates: (i) a weak kinematical form of the Special Relativity Principle that requires the equivalence of reciprocal space-time measurements by two different inertial…
We investigate a simple variation of the Generalized Harmonic method for evolving the Einstein equations. A flat space wave equation for metric perturbations is separated from the Ricci tensor, with the rest of the Ricci tensor becoming a…
A new derivation of the relativistic aberration formula for a plane-polarized light wave is presented that does not require any use of the Lorentz transformation. The method is based on a modification of the Huygens-Fresnel principle to…
In this paper in a framework of classical electrodynamics, we re-derived in a simple way the formula for the light scattering by moving particle with arbitrary angle of collision.
Recent advances in twistor theory are applied to geometric optics in ${\Bbb{R}}^3$. The general formulae for reflection of a wavefront in a surface are derived and in three special cases explicit descriptions are provided: when the…
The potential of the gravitational microlensing inside our Galaxy for testing the Einstein formula for the gravitational light deflection is discussed. For this purpose, the lens mapping is modified by introducing parameter eps, which…
The differential cross-section for the reflection of light beams off rigid bodies obtained by the rotation of a generic derivable convex function is calculated. The calculation is developed using elementary notions of calculus and is…
We are interested in the study of caustics by reflection of irreducible algebraic planar curves (in the complex projective plane). We prove the birationality of the caustic map (for a generic light position). We also give simple formulas…
We prove a gravitational lensing theorem: the magnification of a source of uniform brightness by a foreground spherical lens is mu =1+pi(2R_E^2-R_L^2)/A, where A is the area of the source and R_E and R_L are the Einstein radius and size of…
A deformation of special relativity based on a dispersion relation with an energy independent speed of light and a symmetry between positive and negative energy states is proposed. The deformed Lorentz transformations, generators and…
This is a brief introduction to general relativity, designed for both students and teachers of the subject. While there are many excellent expositions of general relativity, few adequately explain the geometrical meaning of the basic…