We've been exploring space-time diagrams

over the last number of video lectures,

and seeing how they can help us visualize
and gain some insight into some of the
key things about the special theory of
relativity such as time dilation, length
contraction the Lorentz transformation
and so on and so forth.
And so in this video lecture we want to
consider this idea of regions of space
time and the so called light cone.
We'll get to that in a second but before
we do that I want to go back to something
we were doing in the last video in terms
of representing two sets of coordinates,
two reference frames really on the same
plot.
So remember how we, how we did this.
We didn't do this one, we'll get to that
in a second, but we did this where we had
again, Alice observing Bob going by in a
spaceship to the right and the positive x
direction at velocity v.
And clearly we could have 2 separate
coordinate systems.
We could have Alice's.
We could have Bob's.
Just as we normally do at right angles,
but we showed last time that we can
actually, or couple, last couple times.
So that we can actually put both
coordinate systems on the same plot.
And we did that by using the Lorenz
Transformation to take points from Bob's
coordinate axis and plot those,
transformed onto Alice's coordinates,
leaving Alice isn't the normal right
angle coordinates we have there.
or the axis, the x and t axis for Alice.
And we show that you end up with
something at an angle here.
We also made the point that you have of
course, lines of same location and lines
of simultaneouty, lines of same time, and
so on Alice's plot.
The lines of same location are the
vertical lines, represent by the tick
marks and the lines of same time, line of
simultaneity, are the horizontal line,
parallel to the, the x sub a.
Axis again represents by the tick marks,
meaning of course, anything on the
horizontal line, in Alison's frame of
reference, everything on that line, any
space time event that occurs on that line
is simultaneous to Alice.
And then, any point on the vertical line,
or any set of points on the verticali
line are things that occurred at the same
location, although at different time as

time goes on there.

and then we put Bob's axis on there, and,
it's important to see they're parallel
again.
In other words, Bob line the same
location, get the green in there, are.
These lines here, here is his T sub B
axis, so this is the line, of same
location for X sub B equals zero, of
course and then the line for X of B equal
one two, three and then negative one,
negative two, negative three and so on
and so forth.
And then the lines of same time,
simultaneity, are oriented parallel to
the X of B axis 'cuz this is the line for
T sub B equals zero, anything at occurs
at T sub B equals zero is along there and
T sub B negative one and negative two are
one, two, three and so on and so forth.
So we can actually take it, given a
space-time event, say, represent by this
red dot here, and in Alison's frame of
reference, so I've drawn it such that it
looks to be about 2 and a half over and
then went about 4 up, maybe not quite 4
up.
So that would be the location 2 and a
half, you know, some place in there.
x sub a two and a half.
And two sub a four.
And if we're, as we started doing, we're
using units of c being one.
So light years per year, light seconds
per second.
So this could be maybe in terms of the
location, might be two and a half light
years over.
And time of 1, 2, 3 about 4 years or 2
and a half light seconds over time about
4 seconds.
And that would be in Alice's frame.
But in Bob's frame, according to his
coordinate system, we'd see that, here's
his line of same location, so we go up
there from that tick mark, and we see
it's approximately 1.
And then, the parallel line, parallel to
the x axis, for the line of simultaneity,
looks like about 3.
Just roughly, you know, this isn't quite
drawn exactly to the scale there.
But we can see that, so in Bob's
reference frame he would measure that
space time event as x b.
Equals about one, it looks like and TB
equals about three, okay, again we're,
these are approximations there.
And then, for Alice, she would measure
that same space time point as we, as we

noted.
x of a, should have x sub a equal, we'll
just call it 2 point 5 and we'll just
call it 4, t sub a equals 4.
So we see they'd measure different
coordinates of course and we could
transform between those different
coordinates using Lorentz transformation.
Now my numbers might not quite work out
you know, because I was just eyeballing
it.
There for an actual transformation but
that's the idea.
A single space time event.
The event's not changing.
It's the same thing, it's a flash of
light that occurs someplace in space and
time.
Someplace along the x axis, because we're
doing this in one dimension for the x
axis.
And Bob measures it to occur at x sub z
equals 1.
Time equals 3 on his clock, on his
lattice of a clock, whereas Alison
measures it at x sub a, 2.5, and time for
her lattice of a clock at 4 seconds or
year or whatever units we're happen to
be, be using there.
And, and we did a little bit more that to
show how we can you know, see time
dilation on there, and a little bit of
length and traction and so on and so
forth, so.
That's just a reminder of how we can put
both coordinate systems, both frames of
reference really on the same plot and get
some use out of it, in terms of analyzing
things with the special theory of
relativity.
You might ask what if we'd done it where
we did it sort of from Bob's perspective.
And then Alice was moving, which Alice
then would be moving to the, the left.
So, if Bob, if we consider Bob to be
stationary in his frame of reference and
Alice moving negative v to the left, what
would our combination plot look like?
We're not going to try to prove this,
we'll just say here, here is what it
looks like and that's what this is here.
So you notice we draw the green
coordinate.
Bob sits on here as x would be, t sub b
in the normal 90 degree right angle
configuration.
And when you have the reference frame
moving to the left, negative v, then it
turns out, and you do the Lorenz
transformation equations.

It turns out Alice's axis would be at

this, these angles here, sort of tilted
away from Bob's axis.
But the concept is the same here.
In other words, here is the same event on
this plot, and note that it is at
roughly, in, on Bob, in Bob's coordinate
system, his reference frame, it's at one
three.
So, 1, 2, 3, there's the red dot.
One three.
Same thing we got up here, okay.
And on Alice's, for Alice's plot, very
roughly here we can see okay, What's x of
a?
Well 1, 2 it's about 2 and a half there.
There's the parallel, that's the line of
same location on Alice's plot there.
And again roughly at 4 because this has
to be parallel.
To this.
So when you're using these skewed axis as
we've done a couple times before when we
just introduced them very basicly as hey
we could do something like this.
Remember that you don't just measure over
at right angles.
You have to use the angles of the axis to
indicate the location of a given event in
this case.
so again same event.
from either Alice's or Bob's perspective
and in either way of plotting there you
should, you will get the same results
that some of you draw on your, your
diagram roughly correctly there.
Okay, so that's just a brief reminder and
a few new things about sort of if you did
it from Alice's frame of reference, or
really if you had a situation where the
moving frame was going to the left.
Then you get something like this,
although typically it's just for whatever
reasons, this is more standard, we'd like
to have things going to the right and
deal with, with this system there.
One of the note here, they'll become
important in our light cone is remember
when we take the units to be light year
per year or light second per second, then
c has the value 1.
And therefore if, if we were to plot on
either of these plots, if we were to plot
a light beam traveling out from the
origin at velocity C, of course.
Then its slope would be one.
It'd go one light year in a year.
Okay, its rise over run would be one.
or its velocity, the run over rise, would
also be one.

So it'd be You know, you could do two

light years travelling in two years.
So two light years per year, would be a
point, well let's just put that in here
roughly speaking.
Right there.
Okay.
Three light years, and then those, and
let's do, one light year in one year, is
going to be about right there.
And roughly speaking three light years in
three years, it's going to be up here
someplace, my tick marks are a little
off.
But remember what you get here, that's
way off actually, let's put it over here.
You get a line at a 45 degree angle for
the speed of light.
Travelling in in that direction and
actually.
Going down that way as well.
So that is a light beam traveling in the
positive x direction, remember, it's easy
to get confused with all the angles here.
Everything is happening just along the x
axis.
And we're just plotting it the motion
through time here.
So this represents a light beam going
along the x axis, traveling in, at
velocity c and this tells us how far
essentially it goes in a certain amount
of time at the speed of light, 45 degree
angle.
so it splits not only Alice's axes here
but it splits Bob's axes as well.
They're symmetrical across that 45 degree
line representing the speed of light or,
or an object traveling at the speed of
light.
Really not an object, a photon, a light
beam traveling at the speed of light
there.
you can also of course have, the, the
light beam going in a negative v
direction, and look something like this,
at a 45 degree angle and also you can go
that way as well.
so if it's traveling from here up, then
it's going in the negative direction.
And it works the same on this plot as
well.
45 degree angle, really splits the axis
here so the lightening goes like that.
And the same thing here.
So those are the world lines for light
beams on our plots assuming that c is 1,
1 light year per year, 1 light second per
second.
the world line for a light beam, or a

photon will always be at a 45 degree

angle.
Either in that direction or the opposite
direction here.
So having said that, and sort of messed
up our diagrams over there now, let's
turn to this diagram and, and you should
have already guessed.
You probably already have that, really
talking about the same thing here.
So this is We're going back just a
single, plot, single diagram for our
reference frame, time up here, x axis
here.
We will again assume that the speed of
light is 1, we're referencing it as 1,
like 1 light year per year, 1 light
second per second.
Sometimes you'll see this diagram in sort
of books with, and we mentioned this
before I believe, with CT here, c times
t.
T and that also essentially puts things
in, in units of, of one.
But we'll just assume that, so we'll
assume t is in years and then x has to be
in light years or seconds, light seconds,
etc., etc.
So, what, what's going on with this
diagram?
Well, here's the idea, you can see all
the dots we've got.
And we've, we've drawn in what's known as
the light cone.
And we'll see why, we can see why it's
called that.
It sort of has a cone like feature but it
represents from the origin here where we
have dot number 1, point number 1.
A light beam traveling in the positive x
direction would go like that.
That's how we'd represent it.
When it go like that, that's the world
line, it literally would be going along
the x axis Axis, and this is its world
line through time.
If it happened to start someplace over
here, it this is zero.
If it started over here someplace, and
was going that way, then we'd have it
starting down here and maybe they'll,
there's a flashlight or laser right here
shooting out the light beam in the x
direction.
And therefore, the world line would be
going up like that.
And if we shoot it in the other
direction, maybe start over here.
And do it this way, then world line
starts here and move up that way.

So, the red lines represent the world

lines of a light beam.
Now the key question here that we want to
ask, and this gets into what the theme
for, for this week that we've been
working toward, and that is, what happens
with cause and effect?
And what happens with speed of light?
You go faster than the speed of light.
We've talked about how you can't.
We did some analysis of what happens if
you had a light clock say moving, for you
to get up to the speed of light, what
would happen.
Then gamma becomes infinite and so on and
do forth, so that hints strongly that you
can't get up to the speed of light.
But we want to consider some situations
now in terms of, specific question here
is, if I have an event happening at 0.1
here.
Say anything at all, okay?
Can that event affect any of these other
events here, alright?
And, one way to think about it is let's
just go from 1 to 2, okay.
So, note that from 1 to 2 here, if I.
Think about, think about a message or
just a spaceship traveling.
Okay?
Really, literally speaking too, is
happening right here on the x axis, okay,
and one over here.
So, could I, in a spaceship say, get from
1 to 2.
In time to affect something happening at
that point up here.
So it's really at, at position 2 and
time, whatever time we have over here.
Well the key thing here is note that if I
were to draw the world line here from 1
to 2, something like that.
That world line has a velocity less than
the speed of light.
Remember how this works, velocity is
proportional to the inverse of the slope
of a world line so, faster velocities are
like this, slower velocities are up here,
this is the speed of light here, so if
I'm going less than the speed of light,
I've gotta be over here, someplace in
terms of my slope.
So from 1 to 2 here represents a world
line of something that is traveling
slower than the speed of light.
And we know that's possible.
So therefore, in theory yes, if I have a
spaceship here and I need to get to
position 2 over here in this amount of
time here, I can make it assuming my

spaceship is fast enough here.

Doesn't have to go to the speed of light,
just has to go at some speed less than
the speed of light, pretty fast probably,
but it would get there, okay?
And, so we say, yes, an event at one can
affect an event at two and in fact, of
you think about it a minute, any events
within this cone here.
Are able to be affected by an event at
one because again I could, I could get in
a spaceship that was fast enough and I
could travel to point 13 here, which is
actually just on the x-axis.
I really wouldn't have to do any
traveling.
I just, I'm sorry not the x-axis, the
time axis.
I wouldn't have to do any traveling.
I would just sit there and wait until 13
came along, then 10 second later, 10
years later, whatever it happened to be.
so I can get to places like that.
Note where I can't get however.
Look at number 3 over here.
Okay?
If I say okay, I'm going to get in my
space ship, go as fast as I can, I'm
going to try to get to point 3, which is
out here at some position.
Not position 12, that's just another dot.
Some position out here at some later
time.
To do that I'd have to have a world line,
something like that.
Well I missed the dot there, but I at
least hit the 3.
That would be the world line to get
there.
And note that that world line has a slope
less than the speed of light slope and
therefore it's a velocity faster than the
speed of light.
In other words, to get from one to three
through space-time, which means traveling
both through space and through time, as
it were, as time just ticks on.
I'd have to have a spaceship that goes
faster than the speed of light.
So I, I cannot get there.
and similarly for, for 12 here.
Note for point 12, it's right on the x
axis.
And that's a line of simultaneity if
you're, if you're in this reference frame
right here.
In other words.
No matter where you are in here, if it's
any distance away from you, to affect
something you'd have to have

instantaneous communication right, and

that's going to be impossible.
Same thing over here for number eight, if
I'm traveling in a negative X direction,
I can't get to number eight in time to
affect anything.
They don't have a spaceship faster, they
have to have a spaceship faster than the
speed of light or be able to send a
signal faster than the speed of light.
same thing for 11 here, so in terms of,
well actually let's go back.
Not, not 11, not quite yet.
We'll get to that in a second.
So, in terms of the upper part of our
diagram here.
Anything within this light cone here I
can reach in time.
Anything outside the light cone, any
point up there is too far away from me.
Note, you know, X, 8 here is farther away
than 9.
We'll get to that in a second.
Certainly 3 here is farther away than 2.
And so, I just I don't have anything fast
enough to get there.
What about these points on the bottom?
Well, the question there is not what
point, something at point one can affect
these points, these are earlier in time
than point one.
So here the question is, can an earlier
event affect what's going on at point one
here.
Well again, same idea if, if a space time
event at point 6 happens and I want to
effect something at, at 1 here, maybe I'm
going to get in my spaceship and travel
really in the x direction over to here
and also through time to that point and
deliver a message or something.
Maybe there's a big vote in the Congress
or Senates, or you know, Parliament or
something like that, and I want to
deliver a message that says vote this
way.
Well, I can make it there in time to
deliver that message and affect the event
there if I'm at 6 here, because that
world line to get from there to there is,
has a slope that tells me the speed is
less than the speed of light.
Same thing for 5 here.
If I'm over here, I'm traveling in the
positive x direction to get there.
I can make it in time to get there.
10 however.
If I'm over here, I'm too far away in
terms of the x direction, to be able to
get to that point in time and space.

Without traveling faster than the speed

of light.
This represents a world line that is of
an object traveling faster than the speed
of light there.
let's see what else we talked about.
12, that's instantaneous with point 1, so
clearly can't make it there.
Talked about 3.
mention 13.
you just sort of sit there and wait for
13 to occur in, in time.
Cause this again is x equals zero here.
11 over here, again just like 10 really.
It can't get, it can't get to point one
in time.
It has to go faster than the speed of
light.
What about nine and four?
Notice, and also seven down here, note
that they are right on the light cone.
Okay.
What that means is that if I'm at point 1
and I want to effect something going on
at point 4, if I travel at the speed of
light I can just get there in time.
And the same thing over here going there
up negative extraction I'll be able to
get to point 9 in time.
and then down at point 7 if I want to
influence something at point 1, I have to
travel at the speed of light.
So I have to send a laser beam or
something, or a light signal with a
message that would get there in time.
So, diagrams getting a little messed up
there, but again, the idea is the light
cone.
And you have different regions of space
time that it defines.
Just by these 45 degree axis representing
the world lines of a light beam.
And we have some other names for this as
well.
And also it allows us to go back and
revisit the invariant intervals.
Let's, we don't need this here.
Let's introduce this again.
Okay, so again, remember the questions
are: I'm at point one here and can, if
I'm at point one, can I influence
something later on.
In time, and at another point in space.
Or if I'm in time before 0.1, then where
I am.
Can I get a message there or travel there
in time to influence something at 0.1?
And so we have three names for these
situations.
Cause if you think about it.

I can either get there in time, whether

I'm going to point one or to another
point.
So that's something.
And we call that a time-like interval.
A time-like interval.
And, and really the, the key question
here is, I'll write it as do you have
enough time, to, you could say really
just to make the distance.
Let's put it like that.
And this should be a little intuitive if
you think about it, because In our
everyday lives we think about this a lot
perhaps, if you drive a car or even if
you're taking a bus or train or something
you think, I have to travel a certain
distance and I have a certain amount of
time to do it and do I have enough time
to get there given the distance and the
speed that I can go.
So that's really what we're asking here,
do I have enough time to make that, that
distance, given with the parameters I'm,
I'm dealing with, whether car or walking
or however, I'm going from one space to
another point through time as well,
'cause as maybe I'm walking, time is
ticking on, too.
So I'm travelling through both space and
time that way.
And a timelike interval It's such that,
yes, you do have time to get there, okay?
This, and, I'll write that, remember our
interval equation?
C squared, t squared minus x squared
equals a constant.
And it turns out we're not going to try
to prove this rigorously or anything,
we're just going to state it.
And that is if you have a timelike
interval, what that really means is that
this invariant interval, c squared t
squared minus x squared.
Turns out to be greater than zero.
And you might say, well, why?
Well you can motivate this a little bit
actually, because this means that, if you
do a little bit of the algebra here we
do, this means c squared t squared is
greater than x squared.
Okay, just moving the x squared over.
Or if we take the square root and,
everything that's positive here we can
say that c t In general is greater than,
than x.
Now what does that mean?
This is essentially, c is of course the
speed of light.
C, the speed of light, times a certain

time, this is the distance that light can

travel.
Okay?
And, but that, I should say, that light
does travel in a given time.
If I say, okay.
I've got 10 seconds, I've got 10 minutes.
How far does light travel in that time.
Just do C times T.
Let will tell me how far light travels.
And if that's the ultimate speed limit,
if that's the fastest I can get some
place, I know if I have a certain amount
of time to get some place, CT is the
fastest I can go.
You're like, of course you can't quite go
to CT, but I can get pretty close to it.
If that distance the light can travel is
greater than the distance I need to go,
then yes I can get there, or at least the
light beam can get there, in that time.
So this essentially is saying the
distance light can travel in that certain
amount of time I have is greater than the
distance and yes it's reachable then.
I'm, I have enough time to make the
distance in that case.
And so that's called a time like interval
and again is represented in a diagram
when you have things within, points
within the light cone that you can travel
either at the speed of light to get to
point 4 from point 1 or point 9 from
point 1, or less than the speed of light
to get from like 1 to 2.
Or down here from point 5 to 1 or 6, 6 to
1 or 7 to 1 at the speed of light.
Well, and back up there.
We've a special name for the speed of
light cases here.
So the time-like interval, ct greater
than x is, for example, for 5 and 6 and 1
and 2, there.
Now, so that's the time-like interval and
next one is actually called a like-like
interval.
A light like interval, and as you might
guess just from the name this is when you
do have things going at the speed of
light.
In that case you have the invariant
interval c squared t squared minus x
squared equals 0.
And for the x squared on the other side
take the square root and from this you
get that ct equals x, and as we were just
talking about, if ct is, is the maximum
distance anything can go in that given
time, because this represents the speed
of light traveling over a given time.

That means that distance x is exactly

equal to that maximum amount of distance
I can cover.
Alright, in other words, do I have enough
time to make the distance?
If that distance is reachable, just
barely by something going the speed of
light there, we call the light like
interval.
And so in that, in our diagram that would
be like going from 1 to 4.
The only way to get from 1 to 4 in space
and time is to travel at the speed of
light.
And again really you're going out here to
position x but you only have this much
time to do it and you have to travel that
much time or that much distance and to
get there you have to travel at the speed
of light.
And that's called a lightlike interval.
Or from one to nine, or from seven to
one, going that way.
Those are lightlike intervals.
So a given point here, if it's within
this cone this way or down here, it's a
time-like interval from this point to
that point.
If it's on the light cone it's a
lightlike interval.
And our third case is a spacelike
interval.
Third case, spacelike interval, and just
from what we've done you may, can guess
what this one is.
It's c squared t squared minus x squared
is less than zero.
And the same analysis then tells us That
c t, the maximum distance we can cover in
terms of what light can cover, is going
to be less then the distance x.
The, in terms of the location of where x
is.
So in other words this is saying that,
back to the question, do you have enough
time to make the distance?
No, because the maximum speed we can go
is the speed of light and that means we
can get a distance ct away, or a light
beam can get a distance ct away from
where we are.
But if that's less than the distance it
needs to be traveled then you can't get
there.
And that's called a space like interval,
because space, the space coordinate
there, dominates over the time
coordinate.
Light like is when space and time
coordinates are equal in a sense and

time-like means the time coordinate

dominates over the space coordinate.
And so space-like interval would be
represented by like from 1 to 3 here.
That is space-like interval.
I can't get from 1 to 3 in my spaceship
or even a beam of light.
Cannot get from 1 to 3.
It's too far out here for the amount of
time I have.
Or again 1 to 8 over in this direction.
To get over here, in the amount of time I
have.
Don't have enough time.
Same thing from 11 to 1.
Starting at 11, can't get to 1 in time.
Or 10 to 1 going that way.
Okay, so time-like intervals, light-like
intervals, space-like intervals.
This is another way to see sort of the
limitations that the special theory of
relativity puts on us as we travel, in a
sense, through, through space and time.
And in the next few video clips we're
going to explore some other aspects of
this.