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- Einstein's most famous theory has profound implications. If the speed of light is always the same, it means that an astronaut going very fast relative to Earth will measure the seconds ticking by more slowly than an Earthbound observer will. Time essentially slows down for the astronaut — a phenomenon called time dilation.
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In this section, you will see how the postulates lead to the theory of special relativity and see how that theory predicts effects on time, distance, momentum, and energy at velocities approaching the speed of light.
special relativity: A theory that (neglecting the effects of gravity) reconciles the principle of relativity with the observation that the speed of light is constant in all frames of reference. speed of light : the speed of electromagnetic radiation in a perfect vacuum: exactly 299,792,458 meters per second by definition
Specifically, Special Relativity showed us that space and time are not independent of one another but can be mixed into each other and therefore must be considered as the same object, which we shall denote as space-time. The consequences of space/time mixing are: time dilation. and length contraction.
Therefore, if causality is to be preserved, one of the consequences of special relativity is that no information signal or material object can travel faster than light in vacuum. This is not to say that all faster than light speeds are impossible.
Moreover, the theory has many surprising and counterintuitive consequences. Some of these are: Relativity of simultaneity : Two events, simultaneous for one observer, may not be simultaneous for another observer if the observers are in relative motion.
It says that the energy ( E) associated with an object – an atom, a person or a whole galaxy – is equal to its total mass ( m) multiplied by the square of the speed of light (c). As the speed of light is about 300,000 km s -1, this means there is a whole lot of energy tied up in any mass.
This latter theory deals with the extension of the Special Theory to the case of the law of gravitation; we shall not discuss the General Theory here. The principle of relativity was first stated by Newton, in one of his corollaries to the laws of motion: “The motions of bodies included in a given space are the same among themselves, whether ...
