Skip to main content

All Questions

4 votes
5 answers
647 views

What can we accept in thought experiments in relativity?

Although title is more broad, and you are welcome to give examples, I will ask about why we accept certain things as acceptable in Einstein's thought experiments using a specific experiment: Consider ...
Mahammad Yusifov's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
145 views

How to calculate positions when switching reference frames in a Minkowski spacetime diagram

The below Minkowski spacetime diagram includes three worldlines, where B is the observer and has a rest frame. A and C both have a velocity of 0.71c. I then created a second diagram where worldline A ...
cplindem's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
72 views

Coordinate transformation and absolute motion in general relativity

In special relativity, all motion is relative. But in the presence of black hole, all motion is with respect to black hole. The curvature of spacetime depends on how far we are away from the black ...
Chandra Prakash's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
53 views

Special-Relativity and how things not accelerating appear to be the same in all frames of reference [duplicate]

As someone who knows very little special-relativity (and none of the math) I understood that if you take a car moving down the road (at constant velocity) and approaching an observer, there is no ...
244529's user avatar
  • 1
0 votes
0 answers
25 views

Generalized Sagnac-Wang-Fizeau formula

In the paper "Generalized Sagnac-Wang-Fizeau formula" (https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.94.063837), the authors A. Ori and E. Avron present a generalized derivation of the Sagnac-type effect....
facenian's user avatar
  • 416
2 votes
1 answer
76 views

What does it mean that an observer can provide a quantitative temporal order only to the events on his worldline?

I'm currently reading the introduction to Naber's The Geometry of Minkowski Spacetime, and in this post I'm writing down a few silly questions that keep popping into my head. I have near-zero formal ...
GeometriaDifferenziale's user avatar
1 vote
4 answers
165 views

Is constant acceleration the same relative to other objects at all velocities?

If you are accelerating at a constant rate of 10 $m/s^2$, will you see things around you move at 10 $m/s$ faster every second, even when approaching the speed of light? a) If not: How do you calculate ...
Zach's user avatar
  • 171
0 votes
2 answers
67 views

Question about length contractions [duplicate]

So I'm kind of confused about length contractions, whenever I think about length contractions I think about the faster an object goes it will be able to impair more photons which would create an ...
Noob Programer's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
546 views

How do they set the clocks on spacecraft visiting several other planets?

Scientists have sent spacecraft into distant space passing nearby other planets on the voyage. How do they set the clocks to adjust for kinetic time dilation (special relativity) and gravitational ...
foolishmuse's user avatar
  • 4,783
1 vote
2 answers
132 views

Do events very far away happen in a different timeline?

I am not sure how to ask this question in a concise manner so I am sure somebody out there explained it but I cannot seem to find it. So I recently watched some videos explaining that $c$ not only ...
VJZ's user avatar
  • 119
-4 votes
1 answer
57 views

A problem of relative time when two observers in different frame of reference try to calculate the time experienced by another object

From what I understand from special relativity the time of the one which accelerated to attain that velocity runs slower. Let three observers be together and the three observers be A,B and C from fig ...
Arjun Raj's user avatar
  • 117
0 votes
1 answer
90 views

Special Relaticity and Uniform Circular Motion, a (Seemingly) Elementary Problem?

Suppose somewhere in the abyss of space, person X is in a free-float frame. X observes spaceship Y travelling in a uniform circular path centered at X. X measures Y's constant speed to be V and Y's ...
Wafi Marzouq Mohammad's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
129 views

Unsure about the proper use of Lorentz transform

I'm not very comfortable with handling Lorentz transformations and I often have doubts... Consider for example the following situation, illustrated by the diagram below: A rod of length $L$ is placed ...
Andrew's user avatar
  • 187
0 votes
1 answer
64 views

Proper time vs null path

I've heard three seemingly contradictory facts, so apparently I'm not understanding at least one of them correctly. "Proper time along a path is the time elapsed for a clock that travels along ...
J. Chapman's user avatar
0 votes
6 answers
173 views

If time runs slow for moving train, how can it cover same distance in less time than someone on the ground unless the track decreases in its view?

According to special relativity, Δt=γ*Δt' ... (1) Where, Δt is the time the train takes to completely pass by me according to my watch, Δt' is the time I should see has passed for someone on the train....
AYM Shahriar Rahman's user avatar

15 30 50 per page
1 2 3
4
5
55