Visualizing Flat Spacetime: Viewing Optical versus Special Relativistic Effects

01/17/2012

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by   Don V. Black, et al.

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A simple visual representation of Minkowski spacetime appropriate for a student with a background in geometry and algebra is presented. Minkowski spacetime can be modeled with a Euclidean 4-space to yield accurate visualizations as predicted by special relativity theory. The contributions of relativistic aberration as compared to classical pre-relativistic aberration to the geometry are discussed in the context of its visual representation.