Captain Einstein: a VR experience of relativity

TL;DR

Captain Einstein is an immersive VR experience that visually demonstrates special relativity effects like length contraction and time dilation, enhancing understanding through direct, experiential learning combined with educational exercises.

Contribution

This work presents a novel VR-based method to visualize and teach special relativity effects, integrating immersive video with educational exercises for improved conceptual grasp.

Findings

Effective visualization of relativistic effects in VR

Enhanced intuition for special relativity concepts

Integration of educational exercises with VR experience

Abstract

Captain Einstein is a virtual reality (VR) movie that takes you on a boat trip in a world with a slow speed of light. This allows for a direct experience of the theory of special relativity, much in the same spirit as in the Mr. Tompkins adventure by George Gamow (1939). In this paper we go through the different relativistic effects (e.g. length contraction, time dilation, Doppler shift, light aberration) that show up during the boat trip and we explain how these effects were implemented in the 360 video production process. We also provide exercise questions that can be used - in combination with the VR movie - to gain insight and sharpen the intuition on the basic concepts of special relativity.