Minkowski spacetime


Min·kow·ski spacetime

M5346300 (mĭn-kôf′skē) n. A four-dimensional spacetime with no curvature, assumed in the theory of special relativity. The curved spacetime of general relativity appears to be a Minkowski spacetime at any given point near an observer, much as the earth appears basically flat in the vicinity of someone standing on a plain.
[After Hermann Minkowski (1864-1909), Russian-born German mathematician who first described such a spacetime mathematically.]