Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity

1. “Imagination is more important than knowledge” Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity

2. Albert Einstein (1879-1955) • Born in Ulm, Germany • Showed little true academic promise as a youngster; “… you will never amount to anything, Einstein” {a quote attributed to one of his teachers} • 1901 - Graduated from Swiss Polytechnic School {Einstein attended very few lectures but passed because of the excellent notes he copied from his good friend Michael Grossman}

3. Albert Einstein (1879-1955) • Went to work in Swiss Patent Office; (he could not get an academic appointed to a university) • Continued to work in independent studies in theoretical physics in his spare time • 1905 (at 26) earned his Ph. D in Physics and published 4 papers that revolutionized Physics including “Special Theory of relativity”

4. Albert Einstein (1879-1955) • 1913 – Accepted a special position made just for him at the “Kaiser Whilhem Institute” in Berlin • 1915 – Published his “General Theory of Relativity” – (Gravitational and Acceleration effects) • 1921- received the Nobel Prize in Physics for work on the “Photoelectric Effect” • 1933 – left Nazi Germany for America

5. Albert Einstein (1879-1955) • Spent the remaining years of his life working at Institute of Advance Study at the prestigious Princeton University • 1940 – became an American Citizen • 1940 – persuaded Leo Sziland (another German Physicist working in America) to write a letter to President F.D Roosevelt to start a nuclear bomb project – “Manhattan Project”

6. Albert Einstein (1879-1955) • Contributions: • Photoelectric Effect – major importance to Quantum Mechanics Theory {Nobel Prize in Physics} • Special & General Theory of Relativity • Strong Advocate for World Peace • Spent the last few years of his life for the “Unification Theory” – a theory that allows all the laws of nature to be placed under one set of equations

7. Car B Car A v= 24 m/s v = 10 m/s Special Theory Of Relativity Relative Motion How fast is Car A going relative to brick wall? (24 m/s) How fast is Car A going relative to Car B? (14 m/s) How fast is Car B going relative to brick wall? (10 m/s) How fast is Car B going relative to Car A? (-14 m/s)

8. Special Theory Of Relativity • All motion is relative!! • The measurement of position and velocity depends on the what the object is doing and on what the observer is doing! (Frame of Reference!!) • There is no preferred frame of reference. All Frames of reference are equally valid.

9. Special Theory Of Relativity • Since all motion is relative maybe TIME is “relative” too!! • What occurs in one reference frame, may occur in a different order in another reference frame!!! • Simultaneous in one reference frame is not always simultaneous in another reference frame.

10. Special Theory Of Relativity 2 postulates of Special Relativity: • All the laws of nature are the same in all uniformly moving reference frames. • Speed of light is a constant, independent of the motion of the light source or the observer.

11. Special Theory Of Relativity Albert Einstein's Gerdanken Experiment “Imagine yourself inside a closed compartment in a high speed train. There is no experiment that you can do to prove that the train is moving or is at rest, if the train exhibits true uniform motion.” Relative Motion Video clip

12. Earth moving away from star light Distant Star Michaelson-Morley Experiment on the Existence of Œther Using an interferometer they attempted to measure the difference in the speed of light coming from a distant star. Their interferometer should have been able to measure the difference in speed of the star light!! Earth moving towards star light

13. Distant Star Michaleson-Morley Experiment on the Existence of Œther They could not measure any difference in the speed of light coming from the distant star!! They thought they had completely failed!! Einstein later on said that they hadn’t failed but had actually proved his second postulate!

14. Space-Time line High speed Low speed Space - Time Einstein thought these two ideas (Space & Time) as one entity! Light travels so fast that it does all of it’s moving through space and NONE through time! You and I are turtles and move so slowly that we do most of our moving through time and very little through space! Humans spend all their “time” moving through time – they only experience time! Light spends all of its “time” here moving through space – it experiences no time!

15. Time Dilation The constancy of the Speed of light has some very special ramifications. One of these is called Time Dilation. “Moving clocks run slower”

16. Time Dilation What is time? Time is something measured by a clock… but what does a clock measure? A clock keeps tracks of many repeated motions and indicates the passage of time by the sequential number of these repeated motions! “Time is how the universe keeps everything from happening at once.” Anonymous

17. Mirror photon source detector Time Dilation A simple clock can be made by bouncing a light beam between a light source, mirror, and a detector.

18. Time Dilation Why does this happen? Remember these effects only become noticeable near the speed of light! Imagine that in the distant future being able to ride on a spaceship that can travel close to the speed of light. You embark on a 2.0 year journey to the distant stars travelling at 0.99999 C. Upon your return everyone that has been left behind has aged by 50 – 60 years!. You are now “younger that all your friends and your parents!

19. Time Dilation Twin Paradox: Imagine a set of twins. One jumps on board a high speed space ship and is gone from the earth for 2 years ship time. Upon his return his twin brother greets him, but alas his stay at home twin is an old man! Is this possible?

20. Time Dilation Through Newton’s description of motion we sent men to the moon, he didn’t quite get it right! As objects approach the speed of light Newton’s equations do not work! Einstein’s modification to Newton’s equations works for all speeds.

21. d = c x t v2 1 - C2 Time Dilation Relativistic factor: Where: v = speed of the object C = speed of light

22. to t = v2 1 - C2 Time Dilation Time Dilation equation: Where: to = time as measured by a observer moving with the clock t = time as measured by a stationary observer v = speed of the moving observer C = speed of light

23. Time Dilation Any real proof to moving clocks run slower? Let us go through some examples on the overhead.

24. Length Contraction One of the weird things about relativity is how it changes time and length measurements. It’s all about perception and reference frames. Remember from the relativity principle: People travelling on high speed spaceship can say that they are stationary and it is the earth that is moving away from them at a high speed. From the point of view of those travelling at high speeds they are stationary and space is moving past them.

25. ? v = 0.999 C v = 0 v = 0.80 C v = 1.0 C Length Contraction Lorentz Contraction: Moving object contract in the direction of motion. This is why the Michaelson-Morley experiment. Failed! How a high speed space ship will look to a stationary observer as it reaches different speeds.

26. Length Contraction The reason that it takes so little time for high-speed space ships to travel across space is because space has been contracted (shorten) in the direction of motion. Moving at high speeds actually shortens the distance that has to be travelled! Distance for a stationary observer … is only this far for a high speed spaceship.

27. v2 1 - L = Lo x C2 Length Contraction Lorentz Contraction: Where: Lo = rest length of object L = length of object measured when moving v = speed of the object C = speed of light

28. Length Contraction Let us go through some examples.

29. missile Addition of Velocities One more Problem comes up. Let us pretend to fire a missile from a plane. How fast is the missile travelling relative to the ground? v = 460 m/s relative to the plane v = 250 m/s relative to the ground Ans: 710 m/s Ground

30. missile v = 0.75 C relative to some stationary observer v = 0.60 C relative to the space ship Is this possible? Addition of Velocities Now let us try this at very high speeds. If we use Newton’s equations: v = 0.75 C + 0.60 C v = 1.35 C relative to a stationary observer?

31. v + u v’ = vu 1 + C2 Addition of Velocities Einstein realized that Newton’s equations no longer worked for high speed objects! He proposed a new equation: Where: v’ = speed of the objectrelative to a stationary observer v = speed of the shiprelative to a stationary observer u = speed of the object relative to the moving ship C = speed of light

32. Addition of Velocities Let us go through some examples on the overhead.

33. Mass & Energy As soon as Einstein developed his ideas about relativity he realized that out of equations came a very special formula. This equation is not just an artifact. It is the real thing. Energy and mass are related to each other. “Two sides of the same coin”. ENERGY can be transformed into MASS and MASS can be transformed into ENERGY!

34. Less mass Energy released Mass & Energy For 200 years scientists were wondering how our sun could keep “burning” without running out of fuel! The answer lies in the conversion of hydrogen into helium and the loss of a little mass each time. The sun is actually losing 4 million tons of mass every second! Don’t worry … the sun has a total mass of 2 x 1030 kg … which means it will last for about another 5 billion years!!

35. Mass & Energy Back to relativity… How do make something move? … by doing work or applying energy to an object In order to make an object move faster you need to apply more energy. Now here is where it gets s little interesting. At low speeds most of the energy will go into increasing the object’s speed. However some of the energy that the object receives will be converted to mass. The object will become more massive.

36. Mass & Energy At high speeds most of the energy will go into increasing the object’s mass and very little will go into making the object travel faster As the object becomes more massive, it becomes harder to move faster. Giving it even more energy will only move it a little faster, but will make it even more massive. In order to make an object travel at the speed of light you would need infinite amount of energy!! Therefore no object that has mass can ever travel at the speed of light!

37. mo m = v2 1 - C2 Mass & Energy Mass Increase: Where: mo = rest mass of the object m = mass of the moving object

38. Mass and Energy Is there any proof to this mass-energy exchange? • Our Sun • In particle accelerators, charged particles are accelerated close to the speed of light. These particles momentum are measure to be much greater than their rest mass indicated then to be. • Nuclear Bombs produce many 50 Megatons TNT equivalent explosions from only a few kilograms of Hydrogen.

39. Mass and Energy How much energy is stored in 1.2 kg of water if it could be converted completely to energy? E = mc2 E = 1.2 x (3.0 x 108)2 E = 1.1 x 1017 J (Enough energy to power 1000 locomotive engines for 530 years!)

40. Mass and Energy To supply the yearly average of 5 x 1011 J of energy per person in Canada we need: 20 tones of Coal 50000 cubic meters of Natural gas 11000 L of Gasoline or 0.0056 g of mass conversion

41. Special Relativity WOW!! We just completed a higher level physics topic. I know that some of the ideas presented seem strange or don’t even make sense … but remember these occur only at very high speeds and our senses don’t normally see the world this way. Einstein developed a new theory that greatly helped our understanding of the universe. (Wait until you see his General Theory of Relativity!) “Live Long and Prosper”

42. Special Relativity Go on to the Review Worksheet Test coming up!

43. Special Relativity