In Special Relativity
A beam of coherent, monochromatic light can be characterized by the (null) wave 4-vector
which, when written out explicitly in its contravariant and covariant forms is
-
- and
The null character of the wave 4-vector gives a relation between the frequency and the magnitude of the spatial part of the wave 4-vector:
Read more about this topic: Wave Vector
Famous quotes containing the words special and/or relativity:
“I don’t like to be idle; in fact, I often feel somewhat guilty unless there is some purpose to what I am doing. But spending a few hours—or a few days—in the woods, swamps or alongside a stream has never seemed to me a waste of time.... I derive special benefit from a period of solitude.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“By an application of the theory of relativity to the taste of readers, to-day in Germany I am called a German man of science, and in England I am represented as a Swiss Jew. If I come to be regarded as a bête noire the descriptions will be reversed, and I shall become a Swiss Jew for the Germans and a German man of science for the English!”
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955)