Four-position in the context of Change of basis


Four-position in the context of Change of basis

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⭐ Core Definition: Four-position

In special relativity, a four-vector (or 4-vector, sometimes Lorentz vector) is an element of a four-dimensional vector space object with four components, which transform under Lorentz transformations with respect to a change of basis. Its magnitude is determined by an indefinite quadratic form, the preservation of which defines the Lorentz transformations, which include spatial rotations and boosts (a change by a constant velocity to another reference frame).

Four-vectors describe, for instance, position x in spacetime modeled as Minkowski space, a particle's four-momentum p, the amplitude of the electromagnetic four-potential A(x) at a point x in spacetime, and the elements of the subspace spanned by the gamma matrices inside the Dirac algebra.

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Four-position in the context of Four-velocity

In physics, in particular in special relativity and general relativity, a four-velocity is a four-vector in four-dimensional spacetime that represents the relativistic counterpart of velocity, which is a three-dimensional vector in space.

Physical events correspond to mathematical points in time and space, the set of all of them together forming a mathematical model of physical four-dimensional spacetime. The history of an object traces a curve in spacetime, called its world line. If the object has mass, so that its speed is necessarily less than the speed of light, the world line may be parametrized by the proper time of the object. The four-velocity is the rate of change of four-position with respect to the proper time along the curve. The velocity, in contrast, is the rate of change of the position in (three-dimensional) space of the object, as seen by an observer, with respect to the observer's time.

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