Past exam of the symmetry and relativity course of the University of Oxford / 2021 / 4 / b / Solution

For an active clockwise rotation of column vectors in the usual oriented $xy$ plane, takeDirect matrix multiplication givesThus the rotation matrix is an orthogonal matrix, preserving the Euclidean inner product, with determinant $+1$.

For a passive one-dimensional Lorentz boost, use rapidity $\eta$, $\beta =\tanh \eta$:This is not $I$ unless $\eta =0$. Hence a nontrivial Lorentz boost is not an orthogonal matrix for the Euclidean inner product. Instead it preserves the Minkowski metric:by ${\cosh }^2\eta -{\sinh }^2\eta =1$. Thus it is pseudo-orthogonal. The zero-rapidity identity is the explicit exception to the assertion that a Lorentz boost is not orthogonal.