
Before downloading, I strongly recommend that you read the Seminar
and explanation of the Head-up Display present in
the animations. This will give you a better chance to fully understand
& appreciate the nature and significance of the effects present.
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HWnewton.flc
160x120 - 2.54Mb - 250 frames Highway without relativistic effects The camera accelerates along a highway without relativistic effects, effectively a universe where c >> v |
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HWaberra.flc
160x120 - 4.10Mb - 250 frames Highway with relativistic aberration The camera moves with constant proper acceleration along a highway in a world where c = 1 m/s. Note that objects behind the camera appear to be still in front of it and to rotate as we move past them |
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HWdopple.flc
160x120 - 3.75Mb - 250 frames Highway with aberration and doppler effects The camera moves as above. Note that objects ahead are significantly blueshifted, and objects behind the camera are significantly redshifted. |
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HWheadli.flc
160x120 - 2.37Mb - 250 frames Highway with full relativistic effects The camera moves as above. Note that objects ahead are brightened, and objects behind the camera are dimmed. |
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Bycube.fli
320x200 - 1.94Mb - 1000 frames Flyby of a cubic structure The camera moves past an object which appears to rotate. Full effects. |
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Thrucube.flc
160x120 - 1.68Mb - 250 frames Flythrough of a cubic structure The camera flies through the centre of a cubic structure at high speed. As each bar 'rotates' independently the object becomes highly distorted, exhibiting the effects of extreme velocity. Aberration only. |
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Orbit2.flc
160x120 - 3.68Mb - 250 frames Near-Earth orbit at speed The camera orbits close to the earth at 0.95c. While the earth remains spherical, it appears much smaller than we would expect and angular contraction distorts the size and position of surface features. |
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Pinwheel.flc
160x120 - 3.63Mb - 250 frames Camera undergoes UCM The camera moves in a vanishingly small circle at a fixed distance from the earth, effectively simply rotating the velocity vector. However, the angular expansion and contraction give the illusion of rapid and significant motion. Aberration & Doppler effects. |
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Observe.flc
320x240 - 744kb - 250 frames Purely symbolic representation Here we take the position of observation, rather than sight. A photon (bright object) emitted from the far side of a moving (length-contracted) cube can still reach the camera as the cube recedes faster than the component of the photon's motion in that direction. |
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Tana.fli
320x200 - 689kb - 100 frames Aberration angle relation Relates the angles of photons to the velocity vector in both frames, aiding a qualitative understanding of angular contraction. |
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| highway.rrs | Scene source for the highway sequence |
| highway.rrc | Camera sequence for highway animation |