Electromagnetic interaction between two uniformly moving charged particles: a geometrical derivation using Minkowski diagrams

Abstract

This paper presents an intuitive, geometrical derivation of the relativistic addition of velocities, and of the electromagnetic interaction between two uniformly moving charged particles, based on 2 spatial + 1 temporal dimensional Minkowski diagrams. We calculate the relativistic addition of velocities by projecting the world-line of the particle on the spatio-temporal planes of the reference frames considered. We calculate the real component of the electro- magnetic 4-force, in the proper reference frame of the source particle, starting from the Coulomb force generated by a charged particle at rest. We then obtain the imaginary component of the 4-force, in the same reference frame, from the requirement that the 4-force be orthogonal to the 4-velocity. The 4-force is then projected on a real 3 dimensional space to get the Lorentz force.