The Mathematica notebook SpacetimeDiagrams.nb provides a comprehensive illustration of special-relativistic phenomena using a spacetime diagram with two frames of reference, S and S'. This includes:
- A lattice of clocks.
- Relativity of simultaneity.
- Time dilation.
- Length contraction
- The twin "paradox".
- The barn "paradox".
- Time travel using tachyons.
Purchasing Wolfram Mathematica is not required to open the notebook! It can be viewed and interacted with using the freely available Wolfram Player.
The notebook's interface is quite straightforward. If I have time, I might add more detailed documentation or even a video explaining how to use it.
This notebook was created in order to teach special relativity to students purely geometrically, without using any math. It is suitable for students of any level, from high school to graduate school. Even experienced physicists may find it useful for deepening their understanding of and intuition for relativity.
The source code is available in annotated human-readable format in the file SpacetimeDiagrams.m. This file can be modified by the user, if desired, to change or add functionality to the program for their own purposes. It can also be used by students as an example of how to create an interactive user interface and/or perform relativistic calculations in Mathematica.
If you enjoyed this notebook, please star the GitHub repository. If you use this notebook in your teaching, kindly provide your students with a link to the repository. I would also love to hear from you about your experience using the notebook, or if you have any suggestions for improvement.
Copyright (c) 2022 Barak Shoshany (baraksh@gmail.com). Licensed under the MIT license.
- v1.0.1 (2022-06-10)
- Fixed a bug that prevented the notebook from working with the free Wolfram Player.