The text Concepts of Special Relativity constitutes an introduction to the elements of that theory, based only on elementary algebra and arithmetic but presented in careful notation and with the help of attractive figures. The approach adopted was proposed by cosmologist Hermann Bondi in his book Relativity and Common Sense.
The program in question is written in the Java language. It is an independent application, not an "applet" in the sense this term is used in Java technology. This means that it is not inserted in a html page and cannot be executed automatically by a browser. It is necessary to download the program, which is contained in a rather small .jar file. In order to be able to run the program, the Java runtime environment must be installed on the computer, visit the site Java Download for more information. Once Java is installed, a double clic on the .jar file icon should launch the program execution.
The software offers a set of seven animations, each one of them illustrating a chapter of the text. The program interface consists essentially of four parts:
It is worth remarking that, as in the text, the convention used in the construction of Minkowski diagrams is not the most usual: the time axis is horizontal and the position axis is vertical.
The program Concepts of Relativity may be downloaded by clicking the button below. Note that the version provided here presents the interface in English. The "Language" menu allows, if one wishes, to select French or Portuguese instead.
If you are interested in a particular topic of Special Relativity, here is a list of the topics covered in the text and the software. Clicking on an item in this list, will open a page which briefly introduces that topic and indicates the parts of the text and of the software in which it is treated.