Two Postulates -- Special Relativity

Transcript: http://www.davidcolarusso.com/blog/?p=39#more-39

The Tabletop Explainer is an intermittent educational vlog presenting answers to viewer questions, brief science lessons, and ideas for teachers and students. It is a feature of my blog "Tilts at Windmils" which can be found at http://www.davidcolarusso.com/blog/

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• special
• relativity
• Einstein
• science
• physics
• postulates
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[1gummyipod1]

THE SPEED OF LIGHT IN A VACUUM IS 669,600,000 MPH OR 186,000 MPS!!!!!! (roudning up would make u time travel or be stuck in one time u must be more excact!)

[dcolarusso]

Point taken. Now to be playful, I should note, however, that you are assuming the use of more than two significant figures. Also, 6.7 x 10^7 MPH is actually more accurate than 6.696 x 10^7 MPH since c is closer to 1.86282397 x 10^5 miles per sec than it is to 1.86 x 10^5. I'm okay trading some precision for accuracy. ;)

[theinfinitezero1]

@dcolarusso great presentation, but where does red shift come into it in terms of light? we see a red shift and blue shift effect when he's trowing candy at the parade and we have records indicating that stars like Sirus A have shifted from red to orange since the days of early greek civilization, so I'm a little confused, which as a teacher of relativity is something you must used to.

[dcolarusso]

@theinfinitezero1 you are correct to note that an object moving towards or away from us will exhibit a blue or red shift. If you want a waved-based explanation, the Doppler Shift provides a pretty good explanation. From a particle-based standpoint, it can be thought of on terms of conservation of energy. If you Google "nova moving targets" you'll find an old explanation put together explaining the Doppler Shift of stars. I hope it's helpful.

[chuckpcr]

While I appreciate reasonable skepticism, more than a baseless claim that books are brainwashing tools is needed to have a discussion. Perhaps if instead of being insulting you could give me an idea of what you actually believe maybe we could have an intelligent discussion.

By the way I did not come to my conclusions about relativity by reading a book by working thing out for myself.

[269Cristo]

see my videos at 269cristo for a refutation of special relativity. it's clear that neither einstein nor the relativists have thought out the nature and consequences of their assumptions. please challenge me. thank you

[ChazBoable]

2 words "sub-atomic neutrinos"

[maynardr6]

I thought the title said "Two Prostitutes"

[1708Sean]

Is there any particular reason that we believe nothing can travel faster than light, or is it just an assumption we made and never saw evidence to the contrary?

[watdafact2]

soon this will be awesomely explained by minutephysics xD

[1gummyipod1]

@MrFilmfuzzi i aint american u dumb fuck.

[67550085]

U would feel the 'pop' sensation in ur ears due to decreased pressure in the air , hence u can tell whether u r in the sky or on the ground .

[MrFilmfuzzi]

@1gummyipod1

299792458 m/s

The metric system is the only system accepable for physics - and by the way the only system I know as a german.

The mile- system is a typical american nonsens.

[canadakim1]

In the 1970's 'scientists' around the world decided to give light a specific value.

This was to make their jobs easier because the fact is that light does not have a constant speed and the speed of light has been slowly increasing since the speed of light began to be measured.

Science needs to stop teaching the value of light speed in a vacuum - because we do not live in a vacuum. Reality is reality

[theinfinitezero1]

@greg41stone a mere blink of a star's eye, but here's to your good health and many more years of observation. Good luck. ;-)