What is a timelike geodesic?

In Minkowski space there is only one geodesic that connects any given pair of events, and for a time-like geodesic, this is the curve with the longest proper time between the two events. In curved spacetime, it is possible for a pair of widely separated events to have more than one time-like geodesic between them.

What are null geodesics?

A null geodesic is the path that a massless particle, such as a photon, follows. That’s why it’s called null, it’s interval (it’s “distance” in 4 D spacetime) is equal to zero and it does not have a proper time associated with it.

Is an orbit a geodesic?

Whatever the origin of the velocity: every orbit is a geodesic. The criterium is that the object in motion isn’t pulling G’s. For any object the shape of the geodesic that it is moving along follows from both the distribution of gravity and the velocity of the object with respect to that distribution of gravity.

What is geodesic principle?

General relativity incorporates a number of basic principles that correlate space- time structure with physical objects and processes. Among them is the. Geodesic Principle: Free massive point particles traverse timelike geodesics. One can think of it as a relativistic version of Newton’s first law of motion.

What is meant by a geodesic?

A geodesic, the shortest distance between any two points on a sphere, is an arc of the great circle through the two points.

Do photons follow geodesics?

Photons are a probe of space-time curvature,because by the mathematics they have to follow geodesics.

What is proper time in relativity?

In relativity, proper time (from Latin, meaning own time) along a timelike world line is defined as the time as measured by a clock following that line. It is thus independent of coordinates, and is a Lorentz scalar. The proper time interval between two events on a world line is the change in proper time.

What is the difference between geodesic and geodetic?

There is a substantial difference between the two: Geodesy is basically geographical surveying and measurement, often at a large scale and including longitude and latitude issues, while a Geodesic is about extending some properties of straight lines to curved and other spaces.

Is gravity a geodesic?

The concept of “gravity” is then that objects are falling along the bending of spacetime. The path that objects follow is called a “geodesic”.

What is geodesic in graph theory?

In the mathematical field of graph theory, the distance between two vertices in a graph is the number of edges in a shortest path (also called a graph geodesic) connecting them. This is also known as the geodesic distance or shortest-path distance.

Is a photon geodesic?

The photon has a null geodesic and we may use that equation directly. . For smaller radii, the photon will be sucked in. For larger radii, it will be deflected.