Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
1. First postulate (principle of relativity) The laws of physics take the same form in all inertial frames of reference.. 2. Second postulate (invariance of c) . As measured in any inertial frame of reference, light is always propagated in empty space with a definite velocity c that is independent of the state of motion of the emitting body.
In physics, the special theory of relativity, or special relativity for short, is a scientific theory of the relationship between space and time.In Albert Einstein's 1905 paper, On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies, the theory is presented as being based on just two postulates: [p 1] [1] [2]
Test theories of special relativity are flat spacetime theories which are used to test the predictions of special relativity. They differ from the two-postulate special relativity by differentiating between the one-way speed of light and the two-way speed of light. This results in different notions of time simultaneity.
Einstein based his theory of special relativity on two fundamental postulates. First, all physical laws are the same for all inertial frames of reference, regardless of their relative state of motion; and second, the speed of light in free space is the same in all inertial frames of reference, again, regardless of the relative velocity of each ...
Special relativity also predicts that two light rays traveling in opposite directions around a spinning closed path (e.g. a loop) require different flight times to come back to the moving emitter/receiver (this is a consequence of the independence of the speed of light from the velocity of the source, see above).
Special relativity is a theory of the structure of spacetime. It was introduced in Einstein's 1905 paper "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" (for the contributions of many other physicists and mathematicians, see History of special relativity). Special relativity is based on two postulates which are contradictory in classical mechanics:
The second special case is that where the relative velocity is perpendicular to the x-axis, and thus θ = π/2, and cos θ = 0, which gives: ν ′ = γ ν {\displaystyle \nu '=\gamma \nu } This is actually completely analogous to time dilation, as frequency is the reciprocal of time.
He concluded that there was likely as yet no acceptable proof of the second postulate of special relativity. This surprising gap in the experimental record was quickly closed in the ensuing years, by experiments by Fox, and by Alvager et al., which used gamma rays sourced from high energy mesons.