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'''Albert Einstein''''s ] paper "]" introduced the ''special theory of relativity''. Special relativity considers that observers in ]s, which are in uniform motion relative to one another, cannot perform any experiment to determine which one of them is "stationary". This is known as the ]. While this principle was not new to Albert Einstein's work, he found that including ] in this principle required a new formalism with many surprising consequences. In particular, it required the ] in a ] to be the same for all these observers, regardless of their motion or the motion of the source of the ]. '''Albert Einstein''''s ] paper "]" introduced the ''special theory of relativity''. Special relativity considers that observers in ]s, which are in uniform motion relative to one another, cannot perform any experiment to determine which one of them is "stationary". This is known as the ]. While this principle was not new to Albert Einstein's work, he found that including ] in this principle required a new formalism with many surprising consequences. In particular, it required the ] in a ] to be the same for all these observers, regardless of their motion or the motion of the source of the ].


One of the so-called strengths of special relativity is that it can be derived from only three premises: One of the strengths of special relativity is that it can be derived from only two premises:


* The laws of physics are the same in any inertial frame of reference. This means that the laws of physics observed by a hypothetical observer traveling with a relativistic particle must be the same as those observed by an observer who is stationary in the laboratory. * The laws of physics are the same in any inertial frame of reference. This means that the laws of physics observed by a hypothetical observer traveling with a relativistic particle must be the same as those observed by an observer who is stationary in the laboratory.
* The speed of light in a vacuum is constant (specifically, 0/0 meters per second). * The speed of light in a vacuum is constant (specifically, 299,792,458 meters per second).
* The author of this page, the bigot Schaefer, doesn't want anyone to know the third and will issue an RfC against anyone that tries to correct it, threatening to have them blocked from editing.
] 01:35, 23 June 2006 (UTC)


==General relativity== ==General relativity==

Revision as of 02:02, 23 June 2006

"Relativity" redirects here. For other uses, see Relativity (disambiguation).

Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, or simply relativity, refers specifically to two theories: special relativity and general relativity. As a field of study, relativity also includes metric theories of gravitation in which special relativity applies locally.

The term "relativity" was coined by Max Planck in 1908 to emphasize how special relativity (which at that time was the only relativity theory) uses the principle of relativity.

Special relativity

Main article: Special relativity

Albert Einstein's 1905 paper "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" introduced the special theory of relativity. Special relativity considers that observers in inertial reference frames, which are in uniform motion relative to one another, cannot perform any experiment to determine which one of them is "stationary". This is known as the principle of relativity. While this principle was not new to Albert Einstein's work, he found that including electromagnetism in this principle required a new formalism with many surprising consequences. In particular, it required the speed of light in a vacuum to be the same for all these observers, regardless of their motion or the motion of the source of the light.

One of the strengths of special relativity is that it can be derived from only two premises:

  • The laws of physics are the same in any inertial frame of reference. This means that the laws of physics observed by a hypothetical observer traveling with a relativistic particle must be the same as those observed by an observer who is stationary in the laboratory.
  • The speed of light in a vacuum is constant (specifically, 299,792,458 meters per second).

General relativity

Main article: General relativity

General relativity was developed by Einstein in the years 1911 - 1915. General relativity is a geometrical theory which postulates that the presence of matter "curves" spacetime, and this curvature affects the path of free particles (and even the path of light). It uses the mathematics of differential geometry and tensors in order to describe gravitation without the use of the force of gravity. This theory considers all observers to be equivalent, not only those moving with uniform speed.

See also

References

See the special relativity references and the general relativity references.

External links

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