What diagram shows events in special relativity with time and space axes?

A Minkowski diagram shows events in special relativity using space and time axes. It is usually a two-dimensional slice of spacetime: one horizontal axis represents position and the vertical axis represents time, often scaled as ct so both axes have distance units.

The diagram turns relativistic ideas into geometry. A point marks an event, while an object’s history forms a world line. Light travels along 45-degree lines when the axes use compatible units, creating a light cone that separates timelike, lightlike, and spacelike relationships. The cone makes causal structure visible at a glance.

A moving observer’s spatial and time axes are tilted relative to the original frame. This is not an ordinary Euclidean rotation: it represents a Lorentz transformation and reflects relativity of simultaneity. Lines parallel to the moving observer’s space axis mark events judged simultaneous in that frame.

Hermann Minkowski introduced the spacetime formulation behind these diagrams in 1908. The term “spacetime diagram” is broader, while “Minkowski diagram” usually refers specifically to the special-relativistic construction with invariant light-cone geometry. Feynman diagrams instead represent particle interactions, not coordinates of events in spacetime.