If there were a light cone centered at some point P, and you were to look at that light cone from di

Jace Wright

Jace Wright

Answered question

2022-05-09

If there were a light cone centered at some point P, and you were to look at that light cone from different reference frames, would it change its shape? I know that points inside and outside the light cone would remain inside/outside of the light cone in every frame, but does the light cone itself shift? If it does, how would it shift?

Answer & Explanation

hospitaliapbury

hospitaliapbury

Beginner2022-05-10Added 25 answers

No, the light cone does not depend on the frame in which it is viewed.
The light cone is a collection of events that are lightlike-separated from P. This collection of points is the same in all reference frames because in special relativity the interval is invariant.
If you swept out a light cone from P by having a source at P emit a spherical electromagnetic wave and noting where the wavefront was at future times, you would get the same result in all reference frames - that the edge of the wavefront was a sphere centered on P with radius c t, with t the time since the pulse was emitted. This is true even if source at P is moving at the time the wavefront is emitted.

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