What does light cone mean?
Definitions for light cone
light cone
This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word light cone.
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Wiktionary
light conenoun
In special relativity, the pattern describing the temporal evolution of a flash of light in Minkowski spacetime. This is modeled in 3-space using the two horizontal axes as spatial dimensions, while the vertical axis is time.
Wikipedia
Light cone
In special and general relativity, a light cone (or "null cone") is the path that a flash of light, emanating from a single event (localized to a single point in space and a single moment in time) and traveling in all directions, would take through spacetime.
Wikidata
Light cone
A light cone is the path that a flash of light, emanating from a single event and traveling in all directions, would take through spacetime. If we imagine the light confined to a two-dimensional plane, the light from the flash spreads out in a circle after the event E occurs, and if we graph the growing circle with the vertical axis of the graph representing time, the result is a cone, known as the future light cone. The past light cone behaves like the future light cone in reverse, a circle which contracts in radius at the speed of light until it converges to a point at the exact position and time of the event E. In reality, there are three space dimensions, so the light would actually form an expanding or contracting sphere in 3D space rather than a circle in 2D, and the light cone would actually be a four-dimensional version of a cone whose cross-sections form 3D spheres, but the concept is easier to visualize with the number of spatial dimensions reduced from three to two. Because signals and other causal influences cannot travel faster than light, the light cone plays an essential role in defining the concept of causality: for a given event E, the set of events that lie on or inside the past light cone of E would also be the set of all events that could send a signal that would have time to reach E and influence it in some way. For example, at a time ten years before E, if we consider the set of all events in the past light cone of E which occur at that time, the result would be a sphere with a radius of ten light-years centered on the future position E will occur. So, any point on or inside the sphere could send a signal moving at the speed of light or slower that would have time to influence the event E, while points outside the sphere at that moment would not be able to have any causal influence on E. Likewise, the set of events that lie on or inside the future light cone of E would also be the set of events that could receive a signal sent out from the position and time of E, so the future light cone contains all the events that could potentially be causally influenced by E. Events which lie neither in the past or future light cone of E cannot influence or be influenced by E in relativity.
Numerology
Chaldean Numerology
The numerical value of light cone in Chaldean Numerology is: 9
Pythagorean Numerology
The numerical value of light cone in Pythagorean Numerology is: 3
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"light cone." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 14 Nov. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/light+cone>.
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