Educating Cadets Competencies using the Special Relativity Theory

Abstract

The cadets’ competencies in the contemporary geopolitical situation cover a broad spectrum of skills, abilities, knowledge and attitudes. Among other things, it is also knowledge in the field of physics. The standard approach to the teaching of special relativity is about presenting the postulates, then showing the transformation relations between rest and moving frames, following with formulae for the adding of the velocities, dilation of the time and contraction of the length. Here we present another approach to the same topic, which is built on the concept of spacetime, especially on the spacetime diagrams, and with detailed focus on the ‘paradoxes’, in particular the twin paradox and the ladder paradox. The text is based on author’s own experiences with presenting these concepts to the students.