Special relativity in R: the lorentz package

Citation

Hankin R (2025) Special relativity in R: the lorentz package. Journal of Open Source Education, 8 (88), Art. No.: 196. https://doi.org/10.21105/jose.00196

Abstract
Introduction: In special relativity (Einstein, 1905), the Lorentz transformations (Lorentz, 1904) supersede their classical equivalent, the Galilean transformations. Lorentz transformations operate on four-vectors such as the four-velocity or four-potential and are usually operationalised as multiplication by a 4 × 4 matrix. A Lorentz transformation takes the components of an arbitrary four-vector as observed in one coordinate system and returns the components observed in another system which is moving at constant velocity with respect to the first. The materials have been made publicly available at: https://github.com/RobinHankin/lorentz and licensed under the GPL-3. To install the package, type install.packages("lorentz") library("lorentz") at the R command line.

Keywords
special relatively; Lorentz transformation; Lorentz boots; Three velocity; Four velocity

Journal
Journal of Open Source Education: Volume 8, Issue 88

• Published Version