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Article

I: Geometric Interpretation of the Minkowski Metric

This version is not peer-reviewed.

Submitted:

20 September 2018

Posted:

20 September 2018

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Abstract
A geometric interpretation of the Minkowski metric and thus of phenomena in special relativity is provided. It is shown that a change of basis in Minkowski space is the equivalent of a change of basis in Euclidean space if one basis element is replaced by its dual element. The methodology of the proof includes infinitesimal changes of basis using the Lie-algebras of the involved groups. As a consequence, a direct mapping between Euclidean and Minkowski space is defined.
Keywords: 
Minkowski space; spacetime; contravariant transformation; mixed basis; geometric interpretation; special relativity
Subject: 
Physical Sciences  -   Mathematical Physics
Copyright: This open access article is published under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license, which permit the free download, distribution, and reuse, provided that the author and preprint are cited in any reuse.

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