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(Assumptions Leading To This?) : Summary of Last Lecture

The lecture covered key concepts of relativistic kinematics including time dilation, length contraction, and relativity of simultaneity. Time dilation describes how clocks appear to tick slower when moving relative to an observer. Length contraction refers to moving objects appearing shorter in the direction of motion. Relativity of simultaneity means two events simultaneous in one frame may not be simultaneous in another frame.

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39 views

(Assumptions Leading To This?) : Summary of Last Lecture

The lecture covered key concepts of relativistic kinematics including time dilation, length contraction, and relativity of simultaneity. Time dilation describes how clocks appear to tick slower when moving relative to an observer. Length contraction refers to moving objects appearing shorter in the direction of motion. Relativity of simultaneity means two events simultaneous in one frame may not be simultaneous in another frame.

Uploaded by

mohammed ali
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Summary of last lecture:

(Assumptions leading to this?)


MIT Course 8.033, Fall 2006, Lecture 5

Max Tegmark

Today: Relativistic Kinematics

Time dilation
Length contraction
Relativity of simultaneity
Proper time, rest length
Key people: Einstein
IS IT RIGHT?
Implications: time dilation
In the frame S, a clock is at rest at the origin ticking at time
intervals that are At =I seconds long, so the two consecutive ticks
at t = 0 and t = At have coordinates

In the frame S', the coordinates are

So in S', the clock appears to tick at intervals At' = yAt > At,
i.e., slower! (Draw Minkowski diagram.)
Time dilation, cont 'd
The light clock movie says it all:
h t t p : //~ww.anu.edu.au/Ph~sics/~t/
Time dilation, cont 'd
The light clock movie says it all:
h t t p : //~ww.anu.edu.au/Ph~sics/~t/

Cosmic ray muon puzzle

- Created about l0km above ground


- Half life 1.56 x second
- In this time, light travels 0.47 km
- So how can they reach the ground?
- v FZ 0 . 9 9 ~gives y FZ 7
- v FZ 0.9999~gives y FZ 71

Leads to twin paradox


Consider two frames in relative motion. For t = 0, the Lorentz
transformation gives x' = yx,where y > 1.

Question: How long does a yard stick at rest in the unprimed frame
look in the primed frame'!
1. Longer than one yard
2. Shorter than one yard

3. One yard
Lets measure the
length of our
moving eraser!
Implications: relativity of simultaneity
Consider two events simultaneous in frame S:

In the frame S', they are

So in S', the second event happened first!


So S-clocks appear unsynchronized in S' - those with larger x run
further ahead
Transformation toolbox: the inverse Lorent z
transform
Since x' = A(v)x and x = A(-v)x', we get the consistency re-

for any event x, so we must have A(-v) = A(v)-l, the matrix


inverse of A (v) .

i. e., yes!
Implications: length contraction
Trickier than time dilation, opposite result (interval appears shorter,
not longer)

In the frame S , a yardstick of length L is at rest along the x-axis


with its endpoints tracing out world lines with coordinates

In the frame S', these world lines are


rn Let's work out the new world lines of the yard stick endpoints
rn xi + pcti = 0, so left endpoint world line is

rn X; - yL + P(ctL + y p L ) = 0, so right endpoint world line is

rn Length in S' is

since both endpoints measured at same time (ti = t;)


rn Draw Minkowski diagram of this
An observer in S' measures length as rch - at the same time t',
- not at the same time t.

Let's measure a t t' = 0.

ti =0 when t = 0 - at this time, xi = 0

tz' = 0 when ct = PL - at t h s time, xh =yL- y t l 2=


~ L/y
So in St-frame, measured length is L' = L/y, i.e., shorter
SIMPLER
WITH 2x2
MATRICES
Transformat ion toolbox:
perpendicular velocity addition
Here's an alternative derivation of velocity addition that easily
gives the non-parallel components too
If the frame S' has velocity v in the x-direction relative to S and
a particle has velocity u' = (u;, u&,u:) in S', then what is its
velocity u in S'?
Applying the inverse Lorent z transformation

to two nearby points on the particle's world line and subtracting

d = y(dxt +vdt')
dy = dy'
ds = dt'
dt = y(dt' + v d x ' / c 2 ) .
Answer:

dx
-
- y (dx' + vdt') -
dx'
-dt'+ v - u: +
+ "d,Z')
- - -
I + - -v dx' u' v
dt y(dt' c2 dt' If 3:
cz
Transformat ion toolbox:
boosts as generalized rotations
A "boost" is a Lorentz transformation with no rotation
A rotation around the z-axis by angle 8 is given by the transfor-
mation
cos 8 sin8 0 0
-sin8 cos8 0 0

We can think of a boost in the x-direction as a rotation by an


imaginary angle in the (x,ct)-plane:

where q = tanh-' /3 is called the rapidity.

Proof: use hyperbolic trig identities on next page

Implication: for multiple boosts in same direction, rapidities add


and hence the order doesn't matter
Hyperbolic trig reminders

cosh x

sinh x

tanh x

tanh -1 x

-1 I
coshtanh x=
q'=w
-1 A
sinh tanh x =
The Lorent z invariant
The Minkowski metric

is left invariant by all Lorentz matrices A:

(indeed, t h s equation is often used to define the set of Lorent z ma-


trices - for comparison, A'IA = I would define rotation matrices)

Proof: Show that works for boost along x-axis. Show that works
for rotation along y-axis or z-axis. General case is equivalent to
applying such transformations in succession.
All Lorentz transforms leave the quantity

xtrlx= x2 + IJ2 +z2 - (Cq2

invariant
Proof:

(More generally, the same calculation shows that xtq y is invariant)

So just as the usual Euclidean squared length lr 1 = r - r = rt r --


rtlr of a 3-vector is rotaionally invariant, the generalized iilength?7
xtllx of a Cvector is Lorentz-invariant.
It can be positive or negative
For events x l and x2, their Lorentz-invariant separation is defined
as

A separation As2 = 0 is called null


A separation As2 > 0 is called spacelike, and

is called the p r o p e r d i s t a n c e (the distance measured in a frame


where the events are simultaneous)
A separation As2 < 0 is called timelike, and

is called the p r o p e r t i m e i n t e r n a l (the time interval measured in a


frame where the events are at the same place)
"Everything is relative" -- or is it?
All observers agree on rest length
All observers agree on proper time

All observers (as we'll see later) agree on rest mass


Summary lecture:

Time dilation
Length contraction
Relativity of simultaneity

Problem solving tips

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