Document
... To record the event, each observer uses a reference frame that consists of a coordinate system and a clock. Each observer is at rest relative to her own reference frame. ...
... To record the event, each observer uses a reference frame that consists of a coordinate system and a clock. Each observer is at rest relative to her own reference frame. ...
PPT
... You cannot make any invariant from space or time variables alone. That's why we call the SR world 4-D, and call the old world 3-D + time. No true feature of the world itself is representable in the 3 spatial dimensions or the 1 time dimension separately. • In Newtonian physics, p=mv (bold means vect ...
... You cannot make any invariant from space or time variables alone. That's why we call the SR world 4-D, and call the old world 3-D + time. No true feature of the world itself is representable in the 3 spatial dimensions or the 1 time dimension separately. • In Newtonian physics, p=mv (bold means vect ...
Modern Physics - Tarleton State University
... motion and the photoelectric effect (for which he later won the Nobel prize). Einstein also explained Michelson’s and Morley’s experiment: he realized that light didn’t need a medium and was a property of free space. ...
... motion and the photoelectric effect (for which he later won the Nobel prize). Einstein also explained Michelson’s and Morley’s experiment: he realized that light didn’t need a medium and was a property of free space. ...
Definitions
... there must be one and called it the ether. Ether was assumed to define a fixed reference frame for the universe (Newton’s “absolute space”) through which electromagnetic waves travel at speed c. ...
... there must be one and called it the ether. Ether was assumed to define a fixed reference frame for the universe (Newton’s “absolute space”) through which electromagnetic waves travel at speed c. ...
Einstein and Relativity 0.1 Overview 0.2 Discrepancies With
... By the middle of the 19th century, Newton’s laws had been relied upon with little revision for two centuries. Advances in the fields of electricity, magnetism, and thermal physics left many researchers believing that a complete description of nature would be available in the coming decades. There we ...
... By the middle of the 19th century, Newton’s laws had been relied upon with little revision for two centuries. Advances in the fields of electricity, magnetism, and thermal physics left many researchers believing that a complete description of nature would be available in the coming decades. There we ...
Relativity 1 - UCF College of Sciences
... electromagnetic waves, like other waves, propagated in a suitable material media, called the ether. In according with this postulate the ether filed the entire universe including the interior of the matter. It had the inconsistent properties of being extremely rigid (in order to support the stress o ...
... electromagnetic waves, like other waves, propagated in a suitable material media, called the ether. In according with this postulate the ether filed the entire universe including the interior of the matter. It had the inconsistent properties of being extremely rigid (in order to support the stress o ...
Relativity, Inertia, and Equivalence Principle
... Any accelerating system is non-inertial, there would be break in symmetry (a “special” direction would be established) If motion in one dimension is not acceleration, then we can consider an inertial frame along that direction – consider plane flying at constant speed… you could do experiments there ...
... Any accelerating system is non-inertial, there would be break in symmetry (a “special” direction would be established) If motion in one dimension is not acceleration, then we can consider an inertial frame along that direction – consider plane flying at constant speed… you could do experiments there ...
Announcements
... gravitational redshift, think of a baseball hit high into the air, slowing as it climbs. Einstein’s theory says that as a photon fights its way out of a gravitational field, it loses energy and its color reddens. (It can’t lose speed since light can only travel at c.) Gravitational redshifts have be ...
... gravitational redshift, think of a baseball hit high into the air, slowing as it climbs. Einstein’s theory says that as a photon fights its way out of a gravitational field, it loses energy and its color reddens. (It can’t lose speed since light can only travel at c.) Gravitational redshifts have be ...
The Speed of Light - HRSBSTAFF Home Page
... Einstein’s theory of special relativity requires giving up some long held “common sense” ideas about space and time that we have held over the centuries. But it had the advantage that it embodies both theory (Maxwell) and experimental results (Michelson and Morley) in rejecting an absolute refer ...
... Einstein’s theory of special relativity requires giving up some long held “common sense” ideas about space and time that we have held over the centuries. But it had the advantage that it embodies both theory (Maxwell) and experimental results (Michelson and Morley) in rejecting an absolute refer ...
slides - UMD Physics
... d th t ti i th i ll f f The implications of the speed of light being the same in all reference frames is that space and time MUST change in different reference frames. g To analyze the situation, we make some definition and set up our reference frames and clocks. Event: Physical activity that take ...
... d th t ti i th i ll f f The implications of the speed of light being the same in all reference frames is that space and time MUST change in different reference frames. g To analyze the situation, we make some definition and set up our reference frames and clocks. Event: Physical activity that take ...
Special relativity
In physics, special relativity (SR, also known as the special theory of relativity or STR) is the generally accepted physical theory regarding the relationship between space and time. It is based on two postulates: (1) that the laws of physics are invariant (i.e. identical) in all inertial systems (non-accelerating frames of reference); and (2) that the speed of light in a vacuum is the same for all observers, regardless of the motion of the light source. It was originally proposed in 1905 by Albert Einstein in the paper ""On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies"". The inconsistency of Newtonian mechanics with Maxwell’s equations of electromagnetism and the inability to discover Earth's motion through a luminiferous aether led to the development of special relativity, which corrects mechanics to handle situations involving motions nearing the speed of light. As of today, special relativity is the most accurate model of motion at any speed. Even so, Newtonian mechanics is still useful (due to its simplicity and high accuracy) as an approximation at small velocities relative to the speed of light.Special relativity implies a wide range of consequences, which have been experimentally verified, including length contraction, time dilation, relativistic mass, mass–energy equivalence, a universal speed limit, and relativity of simultaneity. It has replaced the conventional notion of an absolute universal time with the notion of a time that is dependent on reference frame and spatial position. Rather than an invariant time interval between two events, there is an invariant spacetime interval. Combined with other laws of physics, the two postulates of special relativity predict the equivalence of mass and energy, as expressed in the mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc2, where c is the speed of light in vacuum.A defining feature of special relativity is the replacement of the Galilean transformations of Newtonian mechanics with the Lorentz transformations. Time and space cannot be defined separately from each other. Rather space and time are interwoven into a single continuum known as spacetime. Events that occur at the same time for one observer could occur at different times for another.The theory is ""special"" in that it only applies in the special case where the curvature of spacetime due to gravity is negligible. In order to include gravity, Einstein formulated general relativity in 1915. (Special relativity, contrary to some outdated descriptions, is capable of handling accelerated frames of reference.)As Galilean relativity is now considered an approximation of special relativity that is valid for low speeds, special relativity is considered an approximation of general relativity that is valid for weak gravitational fields, i.e. at a sufficiently small scale and in conditions of free fall. Whereas general relativity incorporates noneuclidean geometry in order to represent gravitational effects as the geometric curvature of spacetime, special relativity is restricted to the flat spacetime known as Minkowski space. A locally Lorentz-invariant frame that abides by special relativity can be defined at sufficiently small scales, even in curved spacetime.Galileo Galilei had already postulated that there is no absolute and well-defined state of rest (no privileged reference frames), a principle now called Galileo's principle of relativity. Einstein extended this principle so that it accounted for the constant speed of light, a phenomenon that had been recently observed in the Michelson–Morley experiment. He also postulated that it holds for all the laws of physics, including both the laws of mechanics and of electrodynamics.