What is Special Relativity?
Special relativity or what is better know as The Theory of Special Relativity was born in 1905 by Albert Einstein. The theory took our understanding of the physics of our world from a simple, easily comprehensible, intuitive absolute frame of reference to a relative frame of reference where everything seems more like science fiction than real science. To add insult to injury, all subsequent experiments have supported his theory and left our intuition in a pile of rubble. Although, this really has little effect on our daily lives, it effects our perception of time, space, our universe and its origins. It is with great difficulty that we grasp completely what the theory is about and with more difficulty its implications on our worldview. Although Newton knew well that velocity could be described in relative terms between two inertial (constant velocity) reference frames, he believed in the existence of some kind a fixed inertial reference frame that was stationary. This view had as its f
Special relativity is a scientific theory describing how matter moves through time and space. When it was first published in 1905 by Albert Einstein, special relativity caused a revolution in the physics community, and made us look at the universe in a new light. Special relativity is one of the most well-confirmed physics theories of all time, and its predictions have been verified to more than twenty decimal places of accuracy. The two basic postulates of special relativity are that the laws of physics are the same regardless of absolute velocity, and that the speed of light is constant for all observers. If you are in a closed box moving at constant velocity, special relativity predicts that no experiment you do inside the box can tell you how fast the box is moving. Likewise, the speed of light will remain the same for an observer inside the box, even if the box itself is moving at a large fraction of the speed of light. Special relativity abandons the notions of “absolute space” a
Isaac Newton’s law of motion governed the way scientist thought of motion until the late 1800’s when a bright young scientist by the name of Albert Einstein challenged these laws. He proclaimed these laws to be subsets of a grander scheme. That is, he thought that Newton’s laws were not applicable when speeds approached the speed of light. In 1905 he presented the world with his paper “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies” which contained the Special Theory of Relativity. As of today this theory still governs all motion regardless of its speed. In addition to changing the way the world looked at motion he also predicted some “strange” things to occur when traveling near the speed of light. These changes include a “slow down” of time (called time dilation), an increase in mass and a decrease in length (parallel to the direction of motion) as observed by a person in another reference frame. We will expand on these ideas later in our discussion. The Basics of Special Relativity! Einste
Special relativity is the theory published by Einstein in 1905. Specifically, special relativity says that light is constant, and as velocity increases length decreases, mass increases, and time slows down. See Why Relativity Works for a detailed explanation. Back to the Top What is General Relativity? General Relativity is a “generalized” and enhanced version of special relativity. General relativity describes the same odd behavior at high velocities as special relativity, but adds a twist. General relativity throws in gravity. Einstein realized that there was no difference in the force of gravity and the force of acceleration. For example, someone in a rocket ship without windows cannot tell whether the ship is a rest on Earth or is accelerating through outer-space. The net effect (the person’s feet pushing against the floor of the spaceship) is identical. If gravity has characteristics of motion, then strong gravitational feilds must make matter behave similar to high velocities. Th
