Time the 4th Dimension

Time the 4th Dimension.

The concept of time as a way to measure the duration of events is not only deeply intuitive, it also plays an important role in our mathematical descriptions of physical systems. For instance, we define an object’s... speed as its displacement per a given time. On the other hand, the speed of massless particles is really related to the fundamental geometry of 4 dimensional space-time. It turns out that the "proper distance" between two events is given by:

\Delta s^2 = - c^2 \Delta t^2 + \Delta x^2 + \Delta y^2 + \Delta z^2

so 'c' is really the conversion factor between the time direction and space directions.

>>> That's why its units are given by distance and time. <<<

Mathematically, to determine an "event" in spacetime, you need to specify four numbers: three numbers for a "place" and one for a "time". ( x,y,z,t )This is what it means for spacetime to be four dimensional. Moreover, the "proper distance" between two events will be the same when measured by observers in different reference frames, even if the observers are moving relative to each other (that's the "relativity" of Special Relativity)

Frank Heile, PhD in Physics.

ممكن مسابقة الجمارك 2013