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Chapter 5: The Lorentz Transformation

Chapter 5: The Lorentz Transformation

pp. 72-102

Authors

, University of Glasgow
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Summary

Inwe saw how observers could make measurements of lengths and times in frames which are in relative motion, and reasonably disagree about the results – the phenomena of length contraction and time dilation. In , we were able to put numbers to this and derive a quantitative relation, Eq. (), between the duration of a ‘tick’ of the light clock as measured in two frames. We want to do better than this, and find a way to relate the coordinates of any event, as measured in any pair of frames in relative motion. That relation – a transformation from one coordinate system to another – is the Lorentz transformation (LT). The derivation inhas a lot in common with the account given in .

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