What Happens When Things Go Near the Speed of Light?

Advanced Analysis: Deriving the formula for g

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We place time on the y-axis and space on the x-axis to draw a Minkowski Diagram. We must first determine what is being graphed!

The mesons have distinct times of creation and decay. They also have distinct locations of creation and decay. Let Location of creation = Sc Time of creation = Tc Location of decay = Sd Time of decay = Td The creation can be described by the data pair (Sc, Tc) while the decay can be described by another (Sd, Td) ordered pair.

The importance of a Minkowski Diagram is that it shows the difference in these data pairs. The points on the plot are created by:

(Sd minus Sc, Td minus Tc)
These points indicate the time and space separation between the creation event and the decay event. This separation was measured by the detectors in the laboratory.

A Minkowski Diagram plots these pairs in order to show any discernable patterns. We have data that can be used to create the plots, let's see what they look like . . .

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