What is Spacelike timelike and Lightlike?

What is Spacelike timelike and Lightlike?

Updated 2 years ago · Author has 1.5K answers and 280.9K answer views. Four-dimensional spacetime intervals between events can be timelike, spacelike, or lightlike, meaning: If the interval’s time component (multiplied by the speed of light) has a greater magnitude than its space component, it is timelike.

What does Spacelike mean in physics?

Spacelike meaning Having the properties of space. adjective. (physics) (of the interval between two events in spacetime) Lying outside each other’s light cone, so that no information can pass from one to the other.

What is timelike interval?

If two events are separated by a timelike interval, then there is a reference frame in which both events occur in the same place. Also, in every reference frame, the order in which the two events occur is the same. Causally-related events, therefore, are separated by a timelike (or lightlike) interval.

What is the spacetime interval?

in the theory of relativity, a quantity that characterizes the relation between the spatial distance and the time interval that separate two events. From the mathematical standpoint it is the “distance” between two events in four-dimensional space-time.

What does Spacelike separated mean?

So a space-like separation makes any causal relation between the two events impossible, i.e. one cannot cause or influence the other. 1. https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/169631/what-do-spacelike-timelike-and-lightlike-spacetime-interval-really-mean/415000#415000.

What is spacelike hypersurface?

A spacelike hypersurface means (physically) a set of events which are all pairwise causally disconnected (spacelike), and which constitutes a hypersurface, i.e. an n−1-dimensional manifold embedded in the spacetime manifold of dimension n by virtue of its (“inherited”) subspace topology.

How do you find the spacetime interval?

In spacetime, the interval between two events is calculated using a similar equation: s² = x² + y² + z² – c²t², where x, y & z are the distances in space between the two events, t is the “distance” in time between the two events, c is the speed of light and s is the spacetime interval.

How do you calculate spacetime?

When an object is in motion with respect to the reference frame, the distance is subtracted from time to keep the speed limit constant. Spacetime is given by the non-Euclidean equation s-squared equals (ct)-squared minus x-squared where s is spacetime, c is the speed of light, t is time, and x is distance.

What is a geodesic in spacetime?

In general relativity, a geodesic generalizes the notion of a “straight line” to curved spacetime. Importantly, the world line of a particle free from all external, non-gravitational forces is a particular type of geodesic. In other words, a freely moving or falling particle always moves along a geodesic.

How do you find a geodesic equation?

  1. The procedure for solving the geodesic equations is best illustrated with a fairly. simple example: finding the geodesics on a plane, using polar coordinates to.
  2. First, the metric for the plane in polar coordinates is. ds2 = dr2 + r2dφ2.
  3. Then the distance along a curve between A and B is given by. S =

How do you use interval notation in math?

We use interval notation to represent subsets of real numbers. Suppose that a and b are real numbers such that a < b. Then, the open interval (a,b) represents the set of all real numbers between a and b, except a and b. { x / a < x < b} is the set-builder notation. a < x < b is the inequality description. (a, b) is the interval notation.

What is the difference between timelike and lightlike intervals?

If Δ s 2 < 0, then r 2 < c 2 Δ t 2 and the spatial separation is less than the distance light travels and the interval is called timelike. If Δ s 2 = 0, then r 2 = c 2 Δ t 2 and the spatial separation is equal to the distance light travels and the interval is called lightlike.

What is spacelike interval?

If $\\Delta s^2 >0$, then $r^2 > c^2\\Delta t^2$and the spatial separation is greater than the distance light travels and the interval is called spacelike. These are just mathematical definitions. What, however, is the physical intuition behind them?

What do the symbols [ or ] mean in an interval?

The symbols [ or ] are used to indicate that an endpoint is included in the interval. Sometimes, the interval may contain only one of its endpoints. In this case, the interval is half-open. The interval [2, 8) is half-open.