An Illustrated Guide to Relativity

Undergraduate Texts in Physics (UTP) publishes authoritative texts covering topics encountered in a physics undergraduate syllabus. Each title in the series is suitable as an adopted text for undergraduate courses, typically containing practice problems, worked examples, chapter summaries, and suggestions for further reading. UTP titles should provide an exceptionally clear and concise treatment of a subject at undergraduate level, usually based on a successful lecture course. Core and elective subjects are considered for inclusion in UTP. UTP books will be ideal candidates for course adoption, providing lecturers with a firm basis for development of lecture series, and students with an essential reference for their studies and beyond.

Classical Mechanics, Second Edition, 2013

Special Relativity is taught to physics sophomores at Johns Hopkins University in a series of eight lectures. Lecture 1 covers the principle of relativity and the derivation of the Lorentz transform. Lecture 2 covers length contraction and time dilation. Lecture 3 covers Minkowski diagrams, simultaneous events and causally connected events, as well as velocity transforms. Lecture 4 covers energy and momentum of particles and introduces 4-vectors. Lecture 5 covers energy and momentum of photons and collision problems. Lecture 6 covers Doppler effect and aberration. Lecture 7 covers relativistic dynamics. Optional Lecture 8 covers field transforms. The main purpose of these notes is to introduce 4-vectors and the matrix notation and to demonstrate their use in solving standard problems in Special Relativity. The prerequisites for the class are calculus-based Classical Mechanics and Electricity & Magnetism, and Linear Algebra is highly recommended.

2018

In this stroll about the Special Relativity Theory, I analyze Einstein’s insights about the actual meaning of his Relativity Theory. This analysis clarifies us about the way that the Special Relativity Theory should be understood, and help us to see if one really needs to be a genius for fully understanding it. It is found that the Special Relativity Theory is consisting of two independent concepts, of which the basics are unveiled and put in the right context of physics. The experiments that are claimed to prove the Special Relativity Theory are scrutinized in the context of the findings.

B P International, 2023

The book starts with an introduction to motion, relative motion, observer and frame of reference, state of absolute rest and state of absolute motion. The difference between the inertial frame of reference and non-inertial frame of reference has been discussed. The Galilean transformation equations are derived for the space-time observations taken from inertial frames moving with nonrelativistic relative speed. Consequently, the invariance in acceleration, length invariance and time interval invariance (space and time invariance) on the basis of Galilean transformation equations are proved. The concept of luminiferous ether medium as an absolute frame has been discussed only in which the observations for the state of absolute motion and state of absolute rest can be taken. The assumptions for the ether medium have been mentioned. Then the famous Michelson-Morley experiment was studied in detail to prove the ether medium and ether drag. The negative result of this experiment and conclusions from it are given. Principles and postulates of the special theory of relativity are discussed. Lorentz transformation equations are derived for the space-time observations taken from inertial frames moving with relativistic relative speed. The equations for time dilation and length contraction are derived using the Lorentz transformations and the simultaneity of event also has been discussed using these transformations. The variation of mass with velocity (relativistic mass) has been derived using the velocity addition theorem. At the end of this book, the study on Einstein’s famous mass-energy relation, the relation between relativistic energy and relativistic momentum, and the particle of zero rest mass has been given.

Through a brief analysis of the basic principle of relativity, it is found that there is a contradiction in principle between general relativity and special relativity in solving the specific problem of the clock moving around the earth, and one of them must be wrong. Through comparative analysis of five physical phenomena and experiments, it is proved that there are serious problems in the space concept of relativity theory and classical physic. At the same time, the different concept of absolute airspace is further expounded and demonstrated, and the related space-time physical phenomena and experiments are perfectly explained by this concept. According to this idea, a new time transformation relation is deduced and its correctness is demonstrated. It is proved that the principle of special relativity and special relativity are wrong, and a series of physical laws and physical explanations generated by special relativity may also be wrong, and a series of amendments or new interpretations need to be made.

For more than a century, people's belief about special relativity and its formulas was, in fact, inaccurate, because Einstein fails by delaying in the wrong conception. However, one of these formulas is correct, by chance, but the others are incorrect. In the present approach, new expressions for time dilatation, composition of velocities, different masses (energy and inertial masses) and energy are demonstrated and presented theoretically and graphically in an exact and accurate manner, using exact equations of motion and good conception.

viXra, 2016

This research paper discusses the validity of Einstein’s relativity theory. It took four years of intensive work to reach the final conclusions. All assumptions of Einstein and his mathematics (where it exists) will be reviewed. Experiments done to show the validity will be restudied then we shall show their correctness under the constraints and conditions made by Einstein and show their practical and scientific value. We shall also show how much is the truthfulness of general relativity.

The theory of special relativity assumes that the velocity of light is a universal speed limit. There is no universal clock in spacetime. The laws of physics such as F = ma are independent of the relative motion of an inertial frame of reference. Time is a fourth dimension in addition to the three spatial dimensions that we move around in. The implications of special relativity are that moving clocks slow down and that moving objects shrink in the direction of motion. Two events that occur at different times for one person can be simultaneous for a second person in motion relative to the first. Making sense of special relativity requires an understanding of Lorentz transformations, time dilation, and Fitzgerald-Lorentz contraction. The Minkowski diagram provides a geometric interpretation of events in spacetime. A sample diagram shows how two inertial frames in relative motion exhibit time dilations and contractions in both directions. Several other examples are provided. This short development shows how so-called paradoxes vanish when it is understood that the version of events in each inertial frame is self-consistent with experiment. Different frames of reference are in complete agreement about relative velocity, events in spacetime, and the laws of physics.