Special Relativity Tutorials

To discuss any of these demonstrations, you may contact me directly via the CONTACT FORM or visit the FORUMS

Galilean-Transformation.php

This introduces a subtle but profound philosophical question on the nature of the "observer-dependency" of reality. (and introduces matrix multiplication.)

SR-Starter-Questions.php

These questions give an immediate sense of what Special Relativity is all about, and let you struggle more with the aforementioned fundamental philosophical question of observer-dependence.

Is-Lorentz-Contraction-Invisible.php

This article deals with a frequent criticism of my website, which claims that Lorentz Contraction is invisible.

Types-of-Transformations.php

This article is meant to distinguish between observer-dependent transformations and description-dependent transformations. This is a major source of confusion in most texts on General Relativity.

LT-Light-Cone-Visuals.php

Here are some helpful geometrical constructions needed to understand how the speed-of-light can be the same for all observers, even though those observers don't need to be moving the same speed.

Article-List

A list of all the articles on the web-site.

baseballphotons.swf

This was one of the first Flash demos I created: When you throw a baseball, you add the velocity of the ball to the velocity of the thrower. What would it look like if photons traveled like baseballs? What would it look like if you COULD travel faster than the speed of light?

bouncingphotons.swf

At the beginning, this is a fairly traditional thought experiment introducing time dilation , but be sure to proceed toward the end of the demonstration: What if, instead of having one photon bounce back and forth between two mirrors, we take a whole row of them? Then you will begin to see the desynchronization effect in action.

Circle.swf

This is one of my favorite demonstrations because it really shows all three of the fundamentals of Special Relativity; length contraction, time-dilation, and desynchronization. This demonstration considers a pulse of light emanating from the center of a large mirror, and returning to the center. What would it look like from the viewpoint of someone passing by at near the speed of light?

threeviews.swf

Explore the three different ideas of observer dependent speed of light, source dependent speed of light, and ether dependent speed of light.

measure.swf

How could scientists measure the speed of light? One method uses spinning wheels with a slit, demonstrated here.

gardner.swf

Angles are not preserved in relativity, if I throw a baseall off the side of a moving truck, I see it go straight forward. Other people will see it traveling angled toward the truck's direction of movement. lets you have a look at this idea, modeled for Special relativity. Or you can view desynch.swf to see the demonstration uncluttered by instructions.

quiz1.swf

This quiz does not keep score, but explains each answer whether you get it right or wrong.

LT.htm

This is the most powerful piece of visualization software I've made. It allows you to draw a spacetime diagram, and then do the Lorentz Transformation manually, simply by clicking and dragging the events around on the screen.

cartoon.swf

In one of my less interactive, but more fanciful demonstrations, you can see the basic idea of how length contraction and time dilation interact.

length.swf

Here we see a space-ship accelerate, forward and backwards. Technical: The phenomenon shown in this demonstration is not mere acceleration, but actually a "jerk" i.e. a sudden change in acceleration. As it turns out, a space-ship undergoing constant acceleration would settle comfortably into an equilibrium state. The analysis of that equilibrium is called Rindler coordinates.

timetravel.swf

After you watch cartoon.swf you can see an analysis in twins.swf

In 2005 an Italian tire manufacturing company hosted a "Relativity Challenge" where the winner of the best web-based explanation of the Special Theory of Relativity would win a 25 000 Euro prize! I spent a good amount of time trying to improve what I already had created, and adding to what I had learned previously.

five-part-video

As you will see, I was working on a shoe-string budget when I made this. The free software covers over half the picture with an ad. Much of the animation in this video comes from the other flash demonstrations. There are also a few elements that are unique to the video itself.

relativity.swf

This tutorial is a bit twitchy. Hover the mouse over a button, and you'll get a question. Click the button, and you'll get an answer. If you are not overwhelmed by the complexity of the interface, you could learn as much as I did making it!

Age.swf (circa 2001)

Apparently, General Relativity Experts all agree that the Big Bang isn't really a Big Bang, but just an "expansion of space." i.e. the galaxies are not really "moving apart," but rather the space in between the galaxies is stretching. This is all nonsense brought about by the idea of "arbitrary coordinate systems" which means that if you define your variables in a particular way, and you define "distance" in a particular way, then you can manage to trick yourself into thinking that the galaxies are all standing still.

Everything

I should point out that virtually everything on this website is controversial. The arguments about Special and General Relativity are nearly as heated as arguments about religion. There are many who believe General Relativity is flawed, some who believe Special Relativity is flawed. For me, what started as a quest to explain relativity has become more of a quest to explore relativity. There are so many unanswered questions; ideas that only seem to make sense halfway. The answers that are out there only apply if you ask them in a certain particular way.

subtleties.swf

(some of the "errors" I point out here, I don't really think are errors.)

velrotation.swf

. (The points are not clearly labeled so its hard to see what's going on.)

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