1996/11/13 by P. Fraundorf, Fraundorf, P.
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Accelerator Physics (physics.acc-ph) #Experimental and Theoretical Physics Studies #FOS: Physical sciences #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #Mathematics and Applications #Physics Education (physics.ed-ph) #Relativity and Gravitational Theory #gr-qc #physics.acc-ph #physics.ed-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.physics/9611011
10 pages (1 fig, 3 tables) RevTeX; classroom-focus improved; also http://www.umsl.edu/~fraundor/a1toc.html
openalex publication_date 1996/11/13 · arxiv created 1996/12/22 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
This paper presents some ideas which might assist teachers incorporating special relativity into an introductory physics curriculum. One can define the proper-time/velocity pair, as well as the coordinate-time/velocity pair, of a traveler using only distances measured with respect to a single ``map'' frame. When this is done, the relativistic equations for momentum, energy, constant acceleration, and force take on forms strikingly similar to their Newtonian counterparts. Thus high-school and college students not ready for Lorentz transforms may solve relativistic versions of any single-frame Newtonian problems they have mastered. We further show that multi-frame calculations (like the velocity-addition rule) acquire simplicity and/or utility not found using coordinate-velocity alone.