The Movie Transformation System as a Virtual Lorentz Transformation simulator

2005 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 16500554
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Science education
• Research Institution: HIROSHIMA UNIVERSITY
• Principal Investigator: MAEHARA Toshinobu Hiroshima University, Graduate School of Education, Professor, 大学院・教育学研究科, 教授 (50190319)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): KASAI Seiji Hiroshima National College of Maritime Technology, Department of Maritime Technology, Associate Professor, 商船学科, 助教授 (70221869)
• Project Period (FY): 2004 – 2005
• Keywords: Relativity / Lorentz transformation / Educational Movie contents / Lorentz contraction

Research Abstract

We have developed a movie transformation system as a Lorentz transformation simulator which realizes virtually the relativity of simultaneity.
In the case that a moving object goes through the frame in front of a man, the later time slices in the forward side of the object and the former time slices in the backwards are combined in a same frame. As a result the object gets longer released from the Lorentz contraction and the man in the background is, in turn, contracted. We have also developed the system for the reverse transformation, where the movie before transformation is considers as a scene in the rest frame of the object. In this case, the object is contracted and the man becomes wider released from the contraction. Our achievements are in order :
*We clarified that the change of frame width and frame rate is necessary for the true simulation
*We made it possible to transform the movie taken by a high speed camera, so that we realized the smooth variation of time slice and improved the presence of transformed movie.
*We made it possible to take the movie by USB camera within the same application module. By taking a movie by themselves, the users can feel the reality of the educational contents.
*We made it possible for the system to show movies before and after the transformation at a time, where the object can be seen as stopped in its rest frame. It becomes easier for us to understand the difference of two inertia systems.
We tried to use the system in the class in the high school as well as in the class in the university. In the answers of questionnaire, we found "Difficult", "Interesting", and "Hope to participate again". In free comments we found "I have understood it a little with the help of charts and movies.", "Though it is difficult for me, but the movie is easy to understand and very interesting.", "The movie was very interesting, but it is difficult to understand the relativity." Thus we have confirmed that this system is useful not only to specialists but also to beginners.
The remaining tasks are the verification in the physics department and the extension of the system to including the delay of a moving clock.