Search by text, ingredient type, in-class time, physics topic, or any combination.
Current topic: Relativity
Select a Specific Subject.
Sequence
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.
In this lecture, students see a geometric derivation of the Lorentz Transformation on a spacetime diagram.
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?
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.
A short improvisational role-playing skit based on the Star Trek series in which students explore the definition and notation for position vectors, the importance of choosing an origin, and the geometric nature of the distance formula. \[\vert\vec{r}-\vec{r}^\prime\vert=\sqrt{(x-x^\prime)^2+(y-y^\prime)^2-(z-z^\prime)^2}\]
Students answer conceptual questions about time dilation and proper time.
Students act out the classic light clock scenario for deriving time dilation.