Question

What is proper length in physics?

Answer 1

Answer:

Proper length is the length of an object in the object's rest frame.

Answer 2

Answer:

Proper length[1] or rest length[2] is the length of an object in the object's rest frame.

The measurement of lengths is more complicated in the theory of relativity than in classical mechanics. In classical mechanics, lengths are measured based on the assumption that the locations of all points involved are measured simultaneously. But in the theory of relativity, the notion of simultaneity is dependent on the observer.

A different term, proper distance, provides an invariant measure whose value is the same for all observers.

Proper distance is analogous to proper time. The difference is that the proper distance is defined between two spacelike-separated events (or along a spacelike path), while the proper time is defined between two timelike-separated events (or along a timelike path)