Both relativity and quantum mechanics are often hard to grasp for our minds because they describe physical situations beyond the extremes of our every-day experience.
The mathematical tools that we use to describe Special Relativity can be marvelously helpful, but may also unintentionally hide from view a geometric understanding of the Lorentz transformation.
Geometric Algebra is a relatively recent branch of Mathematics which simplifies many physical processes involving vectors. This site is my attempt to understand and communicate the beauty of geometric algebra as simply as possible while having fun investigating a derivation of the Lorentz transformation as a geometric rotation in space-time, as well as looking at the implications of that geometry. If you are after a formal introduction to Geometric Algebra there are many great resources linked from the BiVector.net docs page.
Geometric Algebra is a line of Mathematics which treats vectors as first-class citizens rather than arrows defined by coordinates on a specific coordinate system.
For a flat Euclidean space, the most interesting aspects of Geometric Algebra can be understood from a single rule that the square of the magnitude of any vector \( \v{a} \) is equal to the square of the vector itself.
With this one rule we can introduce addition and multiplication of two-dimensional vectors, as well as a simple rotation.
At the end of the previous section we saw that we can rotate an arbitrary vector by 90 degrees, \(\frac{\pi}{2}\) radians, simply by multiplying that vector by \(\mathbf{xy}\). In this section we will see that this is because \(\mathbf{xy} = e^{\mathbf{xy}\frac{\pi}{2}}\) and that more generally we can rotate the same vector by any arbitrary angle \(\theta\) simply by multiplying by \(e^{\mathbf{xy}\theta}\).
But to get to that point we'll first need to take a closer look at Euler's formula and its application to geometric algebra - where we no longer need to define the imaginary unit \(i\).
Building on rotations using geometric algebra, in this section we define a two-dimensional space-time multivector and then investigate a rotation in space as well as a rotation in space-time, the result of which is equivalent to the Lorentz transformation.