What is Relativity of simultaneity: Definition and 105 Discussions

So, I think most of the folks here are familiar with Einstein's thought experiment that illustrates the relativity of simultaneity by using two lightning bolts and how the light reaches an observer on a moving train; that an observer on the ground observers the strikes simultaneously, but an...

The position of the rocket is not specific. We just know that it is at the left of the galaxy. We know that R will explode first in the rocket's frame. Maybe the galaxy could be moving fast enough so that the time it takes for L to explode is enough for the rocket to see R's light first. In...

according to the relativity of simultaneity, when two people are at opposite ends of a moving train, and in their reference frame sign a paper at the same time when a beam of light emitted from the center of the train reaches them, observers on the outside of the train will say that the person...

I also have a question about the Relativity of Simultaneity ( S&G part 1 sec. 9 ). In Einstein's thought experiment lightning strikes the tracks at each end of a train. The embankment observer who is equidistant from the strikes sees them as simultaneous. The onboard ( moving ) train observer...

I have been studying special relativity and in working with Minkowski diagrams I have come to wonder if when simultaneity is shifted based on relative movement, does this 'shiftting' of simultaneity happen instantaneously across all of space? When a reference frame moves relative to something...

Imagine a 2.3 Ly long box. At the middle of the box there's a half silvered mirror (S) which splits laser beam into two and reflects to the both end of the box which is also mirrors that are facing each other (mirror A & B). Another observer (O) is placed 1.15 Ly away from mirror A in a series...

Recently i found a problem with relativity of simultaneity, its a paradox within relativity of simultaneity. It is probably unexplainable and i would like to publish it without losing my credit. Can anybody tell me any way to publish it? I'm not rich to spend money, but is there any simple way...

Hi, Consider an observer S pushing a fork towards a material x-axis as seen in the figure below According to this observer E and F cut x-axis simultaneously. Now consider an observer S' moving along x-axis with a constant relativistic speed. It is very easy, using Lorentz transformation, to...

Hi, I'm not a physicist, I'm 32 years old and I like physics. For the past years I've been troubled by an issue: the known thought experiment of Einstein with the train and the relativity of simultaneity notion. Now, most probably I'm wrong or I'm missing something but I think that there is a...

This question may be kind of metaphysical, but I don't understand the relativity of simultaneity and its implications. If the temporal order of two distant events varies depending on the reference frame, are the parts of the event (or a temporal object) simultaneous with it in all frames of...

Still confusion in relativity of simultaneity and time dilation... Hello friend, Still Something in my mind is saying that Relativity of simultaneity is the reason for time dilation even though i had some corrections in my understanding by posting various threads. Well,let me use Einstein's...

Hello friend, Can you give me an example that shows simultaneous events in one reference frame not simultaneous in other reference frame with the help of lorentz Transformation?

This came up at lunch today when a friend of mine brought up that he had recently watched the Nova episode of Fabric of the Cosmos where they talk about spacetime as a sort of loaf where relative motion has the effect of cutting different angled slices out of the "loaf" of space time (for those...

The thought experiment starts with the basic experiment shown here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativity_of_simultaneity "A flash of light is given off at the center of the traincar just as the two observers pass each other. The observer on board the train sees the front and back of the...

i have a question about chapter 37.2 relativity of simultaneity (pearsons international edition university physics, 12th edition) . the text besides image b sais: inside the train, mavis moves toward the light coming from the front of the train and away from the light coming from the back of...

I read some articles on relativity of simultaneity which said that the concept is a result of ONLY the finite speed of light and does not necessarily follow from the principle of relativity. I however was not convinced with the explanation. Could someone justify if it's true?

Hi All, I think that I understand (as far as you can!) the ideas behind explaining why two twins have different ages if one travels at near light speed away for a time and then returns to his twin on Earth (the return journey changing the inertial reference frame). I have a related...

This looks more like a relativity question, so let's post it here. I try to keep it short. Alice and Bob approach each other, synchronize their clocks when they meet, then drift away from each other with relative speed 0.8c. No acceleration involved here. There is an entangled particle, Alice...

Could someone explain how the relativity of simultaneity and the doppler effect are different?

Chapter 9 on the theory of relativity discusses a thought experiment (http://www.bartleby.com/173/9.html) about a passenger on a train that claims that it is impossible to say in an absolute sense whether two events occur at the same time if those events are separated in space. I have...

Suppose two spaceships A (at rest) and B(moving right with velocity v relative to A) one above the other with observer X in A and Y in B,both at the middle of the their spaceship.Let two events event RED and event BLUE strike at the edges(RED at left edge) of the both spaceship when Y is just...

The common example demonstrating relativity of simultaneity is something like this: Say there is Person #1 and #2, each on their own train, in the middle of the train from both ends. #1 thinks #2 is moving, but #2 thinks #1 is moving. Lightning hits both ends of the trains. In #1's...

Hi all, I'm trying to understand relativity for the first time. First of all I'm sorry for my bad English, I'll try to be as clear as possible. My doubt is the following: In my books and on many web sites I have red the thought experiment of the train and the two bolts of lightning to explain...

Say there are two observer S and S'. Let's assume that their frames coincide at the instant t=0 and that observer S' is moving to the right at a speed 'v' with respect to the observer S along the X axis. Two lightning strikes occurs at the points A and B in the S frame at t=0. The corresponding...

Hey guys, this might seem like yet another basic question, but I was wondering about RoS. The impression that I got from reading about relativity was that relativity of simultaneity was a consequence of Lorentz contractions, primarily time dilation. Someone else made the point [emphasis is...

Here is a question which can seem stupid to a lot but it has stuck it my mind and i can not move forward. There are two points to it. 1 - The speed of light is same in all inertial frame of references. So if an observer is moving with a relative velocity 'v' withrespect to another stationary...

The example our lecturer uses to illustrate the relativity of simultaneity is a light clock, where a photon is bounced between a reflector and a detector. a tick in the clock means the light has made a round trip in the clock. There are two clocks, one is orientated perpendicular to the...

Homework Statement Homework Equations http://upload.wikimedia.org/math/7/8/1/78195e8f63116bf11b2bbef574fbcc25.png The Attempt at a Solution I'm not entirely sure how to use the equations; a worked example would be very helpful!

Hi. The concept of relativity is that the laws of physics are the same in all inertial frames of reference. As a result of relativity we have the relativity of simultaneity, which says that two events that are simultaneous in one inertial frame are not simultaneous in other frames. Now...

Hi, I was reading the book "Spacetime Physics" by Taylor/Wheeler. In their discourse on the relativity of simultaneity, the example they have used is Einstein's Train Paradox. See and also the attachment for the Train Paradox. My question is this: The analysis of what the train observer(TO)...

I am going to talk about the famous train-platform experiment where two lightnings strike both ends of the platform and the observer on the platform is in the midpoint of the two events. From the frame of reference of the platform, the light from event A (the one the train is moving towards)...

In special relativity the relativity of simultaneity is explained with the following example. We have one frame of reference - a train moving from left to right with constant speed v relatively to the embankment, and second frame of reference - the embankment itself. On the embankment there are...

According to SR relativity of simultaneity, the temporal order of events depends on the frame of reference from which the observer watches the events and different observers with a spacelike separation between them or at relativistic speeds won't agree in the order of events. Now , in...

Why is it that the relativity of simultaneity isn't used to explain wave/particle duality? RoS requires that matter be in different places according to the speed of the observer. All observers are equally correct. This would seem to require that particles posses a wave characteristic...

If I have a 1 light second long spacecraft with a clock at each end that are synchronised before take off, then I accelerate the craft to 0.5C. Are the clocks synchronised or is the leading clock 0.5 seconds ahead of the trailing clock?

Homework Statement The space and time coordinates for pairs of events are (ct,x,y)1 = (0.3,0.5,0.6) meters and (ct,x,y)2 = (0.4,0.7,0.9) meters. Could there be a causal connection between these two events? Is there a frame in which the two events would be recorded as simultaneous? If so...

I have recently attempted quantifying relativity of simultaneity and I was wondering if my attempt has been successful. Watch the below link before reading, as the calculations are based on the same type of event. As the video has no parameters, I have made my own. The velocity of...

Iv been trying to get my head around the special theory of relativity and i think i may have found the particular part of the theory i do not understand; that being relativity of simultaneity. I was on a train recently, sitting about half way in the carriage, and i noticed two led clocks at...

Homework Statement An astronaut is space-traveling from planet X to planet Y at a speed of 0.17c. When he is precisely halfway between the planets, a distance of 1 light-hour from each, nuclear devices are detonated. The explosions are simultaneous in the astronaut's frame. What is the...

As Einstein pointed out, simultaneity is relative to the reference frame one is observing from. His classic train example describes two concurrent flashes of light viewed as simultaneous to a stationary observer half way between the two sources yet not viewed as simultaneous to an observer...

The fact that the relativity of simultaneity causes events to not happen at the same time, dependent on reference frame, seems to imply a separate universe or world for each and every thing in the universe. Different events at different times due to the relativity of simultaneity would lead to...

Hello everybody, I know that there are a lot of questions about simultaneity, but mine is based on a specific aspect of it. In the book University physics ( with modern physics) they explain the train example and how the person inside of it sees the events happening non simultaneously...

I was reviewing this concept last night, and it occurred to me that the statement Two spatially separated events simultaneous in one reference frame are not simultaneous in any other inertial frame moving relative to the first is not specific enough. If the simultaneous (as seen in S) events...

This is my first time posting so it's nice to meet everyone! I'm not trained in physics, but lately I've been very interested in and reading a lot about both Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. With regard to relativity, I found the topic of relativity of simultaneity very interesting. The...

I got lost somewhere in this deduction that time is not simultaneous/equivalent for different reference frames. There are two points A and B that are distanced apart from each other along a railroad (the railroad will act as the reference body). Point M is the midpoint of segment AB. While...

Hi, I'm studying special relativity this semester and stumbled onto a couple of problems. These have nothing to do with my homework or anything, they're just a couple of things I thought up. Since I have little contact with my teacher (it's an online course), it'd probably be a good idea to...

Hi, what do you think is the best and easiest way to describe the relativity of simultaneity? The best possibilities I'm aware of are: a) The one of Comstock (1910), who uses two platforms. On one platform we have the endpoints A and B, and from the middle between them a signal is sent to...

Hi, I've been reading some literature on Special Relativity, and even if I think I have more or less understood the relativity of simultaneity, some of its consequences (in the way I have understood it) appear too surprising to me. The problem is similar to the Andromeda Paradox, but seems even...

Revisiting the lesson of the "Relativity of Simultaneity" So, we have the "relativity of simultaneity", which is meant to show us that two relatively moving observers have different notions of the concept of "time", because (as in chapter 9 of Relativity), the person on the moving train will...

i wanted to say relevance but i figured that would be too easy :smile: editing there is something I'm not getting. yes if the speed of light is the same in all intertial frames simultaneity is relative but so what? can someone explain to me how this implies that time and space are relative...