The Relativity Metric program displays the effect of relative motion on the spatial and temporal separation of events in special relativity.  In the default scenario, by dragging the red circle at the center of the simulation, two events are observed in a stationary reference frame (the Other Frame) and the same two events are depicted in another reference frame (the Home Frame).  The spatial and temporal separation between the two events can be set by dragging the red circle or by using the text boxes provided.  The slider can be used to change the relative speed between the two frames.  The square of the space-time interval, which is invariant, is also shown.

Relativity Metric is an Open Source Physics program written for the teaching of special relativity.  It is distributed as a ready-to-run (compiled) Java archive.  Double clicking the sr_metric.jar file will run the program if Java is installed.  Other special relativity programs are also available.  They can be found by searching ComPADRE for Open Source Physics, OSP, or Relativity.

Please note that this resource requires at least version 1.5 of Java.