assignment_ind Small White Board Question

10 min.

Possible Worldlines
Theoretical Mechanics (4 years)

Special Relativity Spacetime Diagrams Worldlines Postulates of Relativity

Student consider several curves on a spacetime diagram and have to judge which curves could be worldlines for an object.

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

5 min.

Events on Spacetime Diagrams
Theoretical Mechanics 2021

Special Relativity Spacetime Diagrams Simultaneity Colocation

Students practice identifying whether events on spacetime diagrams are simultaneous, colocated, or neither for different observers. Then students decide which of two events occurs first in two different reference frames.

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.

assignment Homework

Events on Spacetime Diagrams
Special Relativity Spacetime Diagram Simultaneity Colocation Theoretical Mechanics (4 years)

    1. Which pairs of events (if any) are simultaneous in the unprimed frame?

    2. Which pairs of events (if any) are simultaneous in the primed frame?

    3. Which pairs of events (if any) are colocated in the unprimed frame?

    4. Which pairs of events (if any) are colocated in the primed frame?

  2. For each of the figures, answer the following questions:

    1. Which event occurs first in the unprimed frame?

    2. Which event occurs first in the primed frame?