light cone

American  

[lahyt kohn] / ˈlaɪt ˌkoʊn /

noun

Astrophysics.

1. a theoretical space-time diagram in three dimensions, represented as a cone, or two cones with one in the past and one in the future, and modeling the space that light from an event or a particle traveling at the speed of light from that event can occupy.

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Etymology

Origin of light cone

First recorded in 1920–25

Example Sentences

The light cone shone over the car roofs, halfway illuminating them.

From The New Yorker • Jul. 30, 2018

There are three properties of the light cone as determined by the property of its geodesic vector.

From Scientific American • Mar. 22, 2013

Only then would events on earth lie in the future light cone of the event at which the sun went out.

From "A Brief History of Time: And Other Essays" by Stephen Hawking

This cone is called the future light cone of the event.

From "A Brief History of Time: And Other Essays" by Stephen Hawking

The faint radiance which was diffused about him by the light cone showed the walls before and on either side of him to be of uniform blackness, unrelieved by any suggestion of windows.

From The Ivory Snuff Box by Kummer, Frederic Arnold