The Light Cone
an illuminating introduction to relativity

Rob Salgado

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archive.org versions (1998-2014): http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://physics.syr.edu/courses/modules/LIGHTCONE/

What's new For a new visualization of the Twin Paradox, visit Visualizing Proper Time in Special Relativity [with LightClocks]. Older, but still useful: Twin Paradox java applet (@archive.org)

Animations are available in MPEG and animated-GIF formats.

Since March 13, 1996, you are visitor number

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PREFACE

• Introduction
• Unfamiliar Quotations
• English-Spacetime-Geometry Dictionary
  

  PRIMEVAL RELATIVITY

• EVENTS and SPACETIME
• Aristotle's Spacetime
• Introducing the PRINCIPLE OF RELATIVITY: Galileo's Spacetime
• Newton and His Mechanical Laws of Motion
  

  SPECIAL RELATIVITY

• Maxwell and The Electrodynamic Theory of Light
• Introducing the LIGHT CONE: The Einstein-Minkowski Spacetime
• Soap Box Seminar Series: The Twin Non-Paradox
• JAVA: The Twin Paradox Applet
• [Visualizing Proper Time in Special Relativity]
• A more illuminating look at the LIGHT CONE
  

  GENERAL RELATIVITY

• Newton, Galileo, and The Laws of Gravitation
• Introducing the PRINCIPLE OF EQUIVALENCE:
• Introducing CURVATURE: The Einstein-Riemann Spacetime
• Introducing the BLACK HOLE: Schwarzschild's Spacetime
  

  CREDITS

• Conclusion
• The Cast
• References
• The assignment for the PHY105 class
  

  WEB-ACCESSIBLE RELATIVITY

• Syracuse University - PHY 312 (coming in Spring 1998)
• Syracuse University - Relativity Group
• Rob's RELATIVITY bookmarks

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Copyright © 1995
Roberto B. Salgado
Department of Physics - Syracuse University
Syracuse NY 13244-1130
All Rights Reserved.

Rob Salgado