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Hermann Minkowski (1864–1909) found that the theory of special relativity could be best understood as a four-dimensional space, since known as the Minkowski spacetime.. In physics, Minkowski space (or Minkowski spacetime) (/ m ɪ ŋ ˈ k ɔː f s k i,-ˈ k ɒ f-/ [1]) is the main mathematical description of spacetime in the absence of gravitation.
The term Minkowski diagram refers to a specific form of spacetime diagram frequently used in special relativity. A Minkowski diagram is a two-dimensional graphical depiction of a portion of Minkowski space , usually where space has been curtailed to a single dimension.
In physics, spacetime, also called the space-time continuum, is a mathematical model that fuses the three dimensions of space and the one dimension of time into a single four-dimensional continuum. Spacetime diagrams are useful in visualizing and understanding relativistic effects, such as how different observers perceive where and when events ...
The Penrose diagram for Minkowski spacetime. Radial position is on the horizontal axis and time is on the vertical axis. Null infinity is the diagonal boundary of the diagram, designated with script 'I'. The metric for a flat Minkowski spacetime in spherical coordinates is = + +.
The Poincaré group consists of all coordinate transformations of Minkowski space that do not change the spacetime interval between events.For example, if everything were postponed by two hours, including the two events and the path you took to go from one to the other, then the time interval between the events recorded by a stopwatch that you carried with you would be the same.
In general relativity, the metric tensor (in this context often abbreviated to simply the metric) is the fundamental object of study.The metric captures all the geometric and causal structure of spacetime, being used to define notions such as time, distance, volume, curvature, angle, and separation of the future and the past.
In Minkowski space—the mathematical model of spacetime in special relativity—the Lorentz transformations preserve the spacetime interval between any two events. They describe only the transformations in which the spacetime event at the origin is left fixed. They can be considered as a hyperbolic rotation of Minkowski space.
Spacetime algebra is a type of geometric algebra that is closely related to Minkowski space, and is equivalent to other formalisms of special relativity. It uses mathematical objects such as bivectors to replace tensors in traditional formalisms of Minkowski spacetime, leading to much simpler equations than in matrix mechanics or vector calculus .