IIT JEE , AIEEE Forum - Physics , Modern Physics

assiduous

please let this be replied...

how to understand the basics of theory of relativity?

what are the good books for the same?

krishna.gopal

Try Modern Physics book by Arthur Biser. I found it really intersting

cygnus7

try The Meaning of Relativity by Einstein..

abhi3chat

try HC VErma part II(green book) it has special relativity

ramyani

Special relativity was proposed in 1905 by Albert Einstein .

First postulate - Special principle of relativity - The laws of physics are the same in all inertial frames of reference. In other words, there are no privileged inertial frames of reference.
Second postulate - Invariance of c - The speed of light in a vacuum is a universal constant, c, which is independent of the motion of the light source.

This theory has a wide range of suprising consequences, all of which have been experimentally verified :

Time dilation ? the time lapse between two events is not invariant from one observer to another, but is dependent on the relative speeds of the observers' reference frames (e.g., the twin paradox which concerns a twin who flies off in a spaceship traveling near the speed of light and returns to discover that his or her twin sibling has aged much more).
Relativity of simultaneity ? two events happening in two different locations that occur simultaneously to one observer, may occur at different times to another observer (lack of absolute simultaneity).
Lorentz contraction ? the dimensions (e.g., length) of an object as measured by one observer may be smaller than the results of measurements of the same object made by another observer (e.g., the ladder paradox involves a long ladder traveling near the speed of light and being contained within a smaller garage).
Composition of velocities ? velocities (and speeds) do not simply 'add', for example if a rocket is moving at ? the speed of light relative to an observer, and the rocket fires a missile at ? of the speed of light relative to the rocket, the missile does not exceed the speed of light relative to the observer. (In this example, the observer would see the missile travel with a speed of 12/13 the speed of light.)
Inertia and momentum ? as an object's velocity approaches the speed of light from an observer's point of view, its mass appears to increase thereby making it more and more difficult to accelerate it from within the observer's frame of reference.
Equivalence of mass and energy, E = mc² ? The energy content of an object at rest with mass m equals $mc 2$ . Conservation of energy implies that in any reaction a decrease of the sum of the masses of particles must be accompanied by an increase in kinetic energies of the particles after the reaction. Similarly, the mass of an object can be increased by taking in kinetic energies.

source : wikipedia.org

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