Introduction to Einstein's Special Relativity - Part 2

An introduction to Einstein's theory of special relativity from an historical perspective.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• special
• relativity
• physics
• einstein
• lorentz
• transformation
• length
• contraction
• time
• dilation
• space
• spacetime
• galileo
• maxwell
• speed
• of
• light
• mass
• energy
• equivalence

[thelastwords]

lol.. collecting your knowledge and putting it into a logical order is a great way to help yourself understand - I know what you mean! Good idea to make the videos. They were good.

What is a good book I can pick up to learn more? Preferably with mathematics but not too intense - one that goes fairly slowly but at the same time is not dumbed down for the average person.. ?

Thanks!

[MrPhysicist1000]

@thelastwords I'm glad you liked the video. Have you tried the Feynman Lectures on Physics? The first volume has a very good section on special relativity which is not dumbed down, and it was my main source for this video. It also includes lots of information about other areas of physics as well.

[suggipuss]

@Magnerism

no.. the beam of light from inside the train would appear to and outside observer exactly as fast as the speed of light..

although for the person inside the train you would asume that the speed of this light would be slower.. exactly the speed of light -100mph.. im afraid this is not the case..

if the person inside the train would measure the speed of that light he would find it to be the speed of light.. Speed is simply distance/time, so time would slow down in the train

[Magnerism]

Hi, I have never studied physics formally but I am interested in the subject. My question is "If someone is on a train travelling at 100mph relative to the ground and this person shines a light in the same the direction as the train is travelling wouldn't that beam of light be travelling at the speed of light +100mph relative to an observer standing on the ground? Obviously this cannot be, can someone explain why?

Thanks,

Brian

[legendpawan]

very nice one..it help me to increase my horizon of my understanding...

is it necessary that every object moving with speed of light will get infinite mass?but why not photon? Its my funny idea that a photon produce number of photons of equal energy but less in amount while travelling.please clear my concept..i am too learning but with funny idea.

[uj26894]

@MrPhysicist1000 wow! gr8 video! what would you recommend for me to read...i have an Oxford University interview for Physics and i need to brush up Theoretical Physics concepts...Feynman Lectures are something i've always wanted to go through but couldn't...

[jockymc]

Great video thanks!

In length contraction, is it the object moving close to the speed of light that contracts, or is it the medium that the object is travelling in that contracts? I'm reading the book "why e=mc2" and it sounds like the object shrinks, then it sounds like it's the medium that shrinks. Confused....

[yamforever15]

this is great! Thank you for making these videos easy to understand, especially for a student like myself. Could you please elaborate on time dilation and length contraction, and how exactly would that work in four dimensional space? Thank you, again :)

[thelastwords]

@MrPhysicist1000 That sounds great thanks!