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Timelike vs Spacelike - What's the difference?

timelike | spacelike |

As adjectives the difference between timelike and spacelike

is that timelike is of a four-vector in representing a point in spacetime, having a positive four-vector norm while spacelike is having the properties of space.

timelike

English

Alternative forms

* time-like

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • (mathematics, physics) Of a four-vector in representing a point in spacetime, having a positive four-vector norm.
  • (physics) (of the interval between two events in spacetime ) Having overlapping light cones, so that information can pass from one to the other, and one can be envisaged as a cause of the other.

    • Derived terms

    * timelike component * timelike congruence * timelike path * future directed timelike vector * past directed timelike vector * timelikeness * timelike vector field

    See also

    * lightlike * spacelike

    spacelike

    English

    Alternative forms

    * space-like

    Adjective

    (-)
  • having the properties of space
  • lying outside each other's light cone, so that no information can pass from one to the other
  • having a space component of greater magnitude than its time component multiplied by the speed of light

    • See also

    * lightlike * timelike