A Simple Visual Model of Relativity

Visualizing Relativity...

I first came across the concept that everything moves through space-time at constant speed in an article on Special Relativity in New Scientist magazine back in the 1980s and found it most illuminating, certainly a fascinating and intuitive way to consider relativistic time-dilation.

It got me thinking and I came up with a model that also covers relativistic length-contraction and simultaneity, and extended it to the field of General Relativity to describe the relativistic phenomena that arise from the gravitational field of a massive object.

I wrote it up, put it to one side and pretty much forgot about it until recently when I picked it up again, ripped it to pieces and rewrote it. Here it is, but even after all these years, it's still a work-in-progress.

Updates

• Sep 26: relativistic radar delay, why black holes are black, new figure, energy considerations, minor changes.

• Aug 26: corrections, minor updates, relativistic free-fall, circular orbits.

• Jul 26: correction to equation 5; potted histories of special and general theories; addition of section on gravitational attraction; minor updates.

• Jun 26: page reinstated with updated document, including a postscript/appendix with Lagrangian and relevant Euler-Lagrange equations.