face Lecture

30 min.

Lorentz Transformation (Geometric)

Theoretical Mechanics (3 years)

Special Relativity Lorentz Transformation Hyperbola Trig

In this lecture, students see a geometric derivation of the Lorentz Transformation on a spacetime diagram.

group Small Group Activity

30 min.

Right Angles on Spacetime Diagrams

Theoretical Mechanics (4 years)

Special Relativity

Students take the inner product of vectors that lie on the spacetime axis to show that they are orthogonal. To do the inner product, students much use the Minkowski metric.

group Small Group Activity

30 min.

Mass is not Conserved

Theoretical Mechanics (4 years)

energy conservation mass conservation collision

Groups are asked to analyze the following standard problem:

Two identical lumps of clay of (rest) mass m collide head on, with each moving at 3/5 the speed of light. What is the mass of the resulting lump of clay?