A physicist whose 1959 work explained why a photograph of a rapidly moving object does not simply show Lorentz contraction. Light arriving at the camera simultaneously left different parts of the object at different times. The resulting apparent shape combines this timing with relativistic aberration: a moving sphere still has a circular outline, while other shapes can appear rotated. Terrell rotation therefore distinguishes an optical image from a length measured using simultaneous positions in a reference frame.[ref]
Invisibility of the Lorentz Contraction by James Terrell. Abstract: conformal transformation of apparent directions, circular sphere outline and apparent rotation
Articles by others on the same topic
There are currently no matching articles.