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LECTURE 20
     goals and outline

lecture title

    Spacetime: Gamma Factor Effects and Time as the 4th Dimension

text pages

    Ch 10, pp 115-120 and 123-128. You may skip pp 120-123 "Back to the Garage" and 127-128 "The Twin Paradox."

lecture goals

  • Practice using the gamma factor.
  • Derive the quantitative (gamma) factor for length contraction and time dilation (clock slowdown) of moving reference frames.
  • See what physicists mean by "time is the fourth dimension."
  • Learn that not all dimensions are created equal.

outline of lecture

    1. The Gamma Factor for Clocks and Lengths

    2. Using the Gamma Factor Triangles

    3. Time as the Fourth Dimension

quote

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

-- Albert Einstein

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Please email any questions, comments, or suggestions to Professor Bernice Durand, bdurand@theory3.physics.wisc.edu.

Revised October 13, 1997.


Content © 1997, Bernice Durand
Images and layout © 1997, Shane Hamilton