Page "Light cone" Paragraph 2

Because signals and other causal influences cannot travel faster than light ( see special relativity and spooky action at a distance ), the light cone plays an essential role in defining the concept of causality-for a given event E, the set of events that lie on or inside the past light cone of E would also be the set of all events that could send a signal that would have time to reach E and influence it in some way.

For example, at a time ten years before E, if we consider the set of all events in the past light cone of E which occur at that time, the result would be a sphere ( 2D: disk ) with a radius of ten light-years centered on the future position E will occur.

So, any point on or inside the sphere could send a signal moving at the speed of light or slower that would have time to influence the event E, while points outside the sphere at that moment would not be able to have any causal influence on E. Likewise, the set of events that lie on or inside the future light cone of E would also be the set of events that could receive a signal sent out from the position and time of E, so the future light cone contains all the events that could potentially be causally influenced by E. Events which lie neither in the past or future light cone of E cannot influence or be influenced by E in relativity.