dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaVisualizing proper-time in Special Relativity
| Authors | Roberto B. Salgado |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | physics/0505134 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0505134 |
| Journal | Physics Teacher (Indian Physical Society), v46 (4), pp. 132-143 (October-December 2004) |
Abstract
We present a new visualization of the proper-time elapsed along an observer's worldline. By supplementing worldlines with light clocks, the measurement of space-time intervals is reduced to the "counting of ticks." The resulting space-time diagrams are pedagogically attractive because they emphasize the relativistic view that "time is what is measured by an observer's clock."
{
"annotation_id": "a6cc6cdf-a34c-45f0-82b5-58f76b0352e4",
"date_created": "2026-03-02T18:00:57.376000Z",
"date_modified": "2026-03-02T18:00:57.376000Z",
"file_hash": "514abc8fd814f3d054706671b5939efdb6aa6823dd91bfe4cefc4e736b9ecd94",
"private": false,
"record": {
"abstract": "We present a new visualization of the proper-time elapsed along an observer\u0027s\nworldline. By supplementing worldlines with light clocks, the measurement of\nspace-time intervals is reduced to the \"counting of ticks.\" The resulting\nspace-time diagrams are pedagogically attractive because they emphasize the\nrelativistic view that \"time is what is measured by an observer\u0027s clock.\"",
"arxiv_id": "physics/0505134",
"authors": [
"Roberto B. Salgado"
],
"categories": [
"physics.ed-ph"
],
"journal_ref": "Physics Teacher (Indian Physical Society), v46 (4), pp. 132-143\n (October-December 2004)",
"title": "Visualizing proper-time in Special Relativity",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0505134"
},
"schema_id": "dorsal/arxiv",
"source": {
"execution_id": "6e706991-9ae9-4bd9-b59f-5e8725f97c86",
"id": "arXiv Dataset IDs",
"type": "Model",
"variant": "snapshot-2026-03-01",
"version": "0.1.0"
},
"user_id": 1000002
}