Summary of Material in Chapters 4-6
You should understand the meanings of the following terms:
event, world line, line of simultaneity
inertial reference frame, principle of relativity
spacelike and timelike intervals, proper time
four-vector
inertial force, centrifugal force, centripetal acceleration
equivalence principle
You should understand the following topics:
spacetime diagrams and their use
spacetime Pythagorean theorem
collocation and simultaneity in Einsteinian relativity
time dilation and twin paradox
Lorentz contraction
the representation of waves in spacetime – wave four-vector
the dispersion relation for relativistic waves and associated concepts such as the phase and group velocities of these waves
the relativistic Doppler effect
the relativistic addition of velocities
circular motion
acceleration in special relativity – how our view of acceleration differs between different inertial reference frames
accelerated reference frames, equivalence principle, gravitational red shift, event horizons