Lorentz Transformations

Special Relativity · 1904

Equation: x′ = γ(x − vt) · t′ = γ(t − vx/c²)
Field: Special Relativity
Named After: Hendrik Lorentz
Year: 1904

Symbols

x, t position and time in one frame · x′, t′ the same event seen from a frame moving at speed v · c speed of light · γ the Lorentz factor · y and z pass through unchanged

Significance

How space and time coordinates convert between observers in relative motion — and the surprise is that time mixes with position. Written by Lorentz to patch electromagnetism; reinterpreted by Einstein in 1905 as the actual geometry of space and time. Simultaneity has been relative ever since.