Time Contraction and length dilation in SR | Sociology in Pure Physics | N J Wildberger

We present a simplified Euclidean version of the mathematics behind Special Relativity, in which we are able to appreciate some of the seemingly remarkable consequences of the Lorentz transformations such as time dilation and length contraction. As the title of the video suggests, in the Euclidean case there is an interesting twist. With a bit of geometry and linear algebra, we see that the heart of the matter is just a change of coordinates. Nothing “physical“ is happening here, except that we are just developing the consequences of having different points of view on the same “underlying story“. In fact we move towards letting go of there being a well-defined “underlying story“: there are only points of view and the relations between them. This is an elementary talk that hopefully will be accessible to a broad audience, even with only some basic high school mathematics. This is part of the Sociology and Pure Maths playlist available at