Through Einstein's Eyes Updates and Information

FAQ: the site

Why the black background colour? The black was chosen to highlight the movies.

Windows Internet Explorer makes an annoying clicking sound as the frames in the site change. How can I turn it off? To find out, on the site: go to the help page; scroll down to the 'Browser Compatibility' heading; click on the 'list of browsers' link; and look under 'Internet Explorer 6.0'.

Why doesn't the browser Back button work properly? Some movie windows use many frames on each page. Each time a frame loads it adds to the 'Back' history. So 'Back' takes you back through all these frames, which is probably not what you want. Use the Navigation bar (at top left) instead.

FAQ: physics

Some videos have an accelerating camera. Doesn't this require the general theory of relativity to treat properly? Backlight, the code which produced the videos, only uses special relativity. This is valid in local inertial frames - indeed general relativity is the theory that patches together local special relativity into a global theory. The assumption we make is that the accelerating camera takes the same image as would a non-accelerating camera with the same speed. To check that this is valid one has to analyse the interaction of the light with the camera, using special relativity in some local inertial frame, and verify that acceleration does not affect the process.

Can the usual length contraction and time dilation effects be seen in the videos? The usual effects are seen when variations in light travel time can be ignored. For example, when objects are far away and directly in front of the viewer. You can see standard length contraction on the tram videos as they pass directly in front. If there was a flashing light on the tram you would see time dilation too.

FAQ: DVD

How is the DVD different to the CD? The DVD contains the contents of the CD ("the site") in a DVD-ROM section readable by computers with a DVD drive. In addition it contains high resolution versions of much of the video on the site. Some of the video is in wide screen format. The DVD video can be played on a DVD player or on a computer.

Updates

Updates to web site links
Einstein's dreams. The site linked to from version 1.0 of Through Einstein's Eyes no longer exists. However this site has extracts from the book.

Contact us

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You may email us at Craig.Savage@anu.edu.au or post to:

The Australian National University, Department of Physics, Author: C. Savage.
Date Last Modified: Sep 24, 2005
URL: http://www.anu.edu.au/Physics/Savage/TEE/TEE_site_info.html