Special Relativity Lab

Motion

speed β = v/c 0.900

sweep β automatically

Object

Camera

azimuth 0°

elevation 15°

rest-shape outline

Readout

Faces

trailing face (−x)

leading face (+x)

face toward camera

Left panel: the naive picture, everything Lorentz‑contracted along x at one instant of lab time. Right panel: what a distant camera actually records, because light from the far side of the object left earlier than light from the near side. The recorded image is identical to the undeformed object rigidly rotated by arcsin β. A sphere therefore always photographs as a circle, never as an ellipse.