Relativity both the special and general theories, quantum mechanics, and thermody. The text used in this ebook is from the first english translation, published in 1920. By 1916, albert einstein was a worldfamous professor of physics at the university of berlin, and he had seen several scientists and popularizers write books about his special theory of relativity. Pdf notes on the meaning of einsteins special theory of. His current research involves trapping of atoms to carry out high precision tests offundamen tal physics. General i article the special theory of relativity vasant natarajan and diptiman sen vasant natarajan is at the department of physics, lise, bangalore. The theory of special relativity explains how space and time are linked for objects that are moving at a consistent speed in a straight line. The special theory of relativity albert einstein 15. Albert einstein 5 preface december, 1916 the present book is intended, as far as possible, to give an exact insight into the theory of relativity to those readers who, from a. Relativity both the special and general theories, quantum mechanics, and thermodynamics are. Lecture notes 1 the doppler effect and special relativity. Special relativity lecture notes table of contents.
Pdf a refutation of the prevalent notion that special relativity is wrong find, read and cite all the research you need on researchgate. Special relativity einstein 1905 based on two postulates. The special theory of relativity physics, iisc indian institute of. Relativity both the special and general theories, quantum mechanics, and. There are two, theories of relativity, by einstein, the special theory of relativity or just special relativity, sr, and the general theory of relativity or just general relativity, gr. February 14, 2008 the views of space and time which i wish to lay before you have. Lecture notes on special relativity macquarie university. Hubbles law will continue to be called hubbles law, and that seems right to me. These are few class notes for the undergraduate or graduate students to learn and understand the basic. He has earlier worked on high precision mass spectrometry and on the focussing of atomic. Consequently, the spread of both general relativity and special relativity began in 1921 as.
The general theory will not be dealt with in this course. The first edition of this novel was published in 1916, and was written by albert einstein. This set of lecture notes is based principally upon material drawn from these sources. Amongst other things, this latter theory is essentially a theory of gravitation.
The question of whether the universe is expanding or not is really an observational one, and it was hubble who made the rst of these observations. A frame moving with a constant velocity with respect to an inertial reference frame is itself inertial. Some numerical problems in special theory of relativity. When albert einstein published his first works on the special theory of relativity in 1905, mexico did not yet have scientific institutions dedicated to physics research, nor did it have schools for educating physicists. With their newtonian ideas of absolute space and time firmly entrenched, most physicists thought that this speed was correct only in one special frame. A recurrent theme in the philosophical literature on the special theory of relativity is the question as to the reality of the lorentz contraction. One of its most famous aspects concerns objects moving. Pdf notes on the meaning of einsteins special theory of relativity. The principle of relativity in the restricted sense in order to attain the greatest possible clearness, let us return to our example of the railway carriage supposed to be travelling uniformly. Later, einstein was able to further develop this theory, leading to what is known as the general theory of relativity. In relativity, and astronomy, it is convenient to measure distance in units of light. Lecture notes on special relativity department of physics. If the light combines in step, the observer notes that the view is bright, while if out.
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