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Q: Show me Axioms of Theory of Relativity ( Answered 4 out of 5 stars,   3 Comments )
Question  
Subject: Show me Axioms of Theory of Relativity
Category: Science > Physics
Asked by: lindsaylohan-ga
List Price: $10.00
Posted: 09 Sep 2004 23:22 PDT
Expires: 09 Oct 2004 23:22 PDT
Question ID: 399232
Can you tell me 2 (or 3 or any) axioms of "Theory of Relativity" (Einstein)?
I'm just a teen boy want to write a short topic about that Theory for
my teacher. Please give me some link!
Answer  
Subject: Re: Show me Axioms of Theory of Relativity
Answered By: till-ga on 10 Sep 2004 03:01 PDT
Rated:4 out of 5 stars
 
I found some very interesting ones for you:

You will find a descriptive summary of Einsteinīs Theory without any
mathematical formulas here. Thatīs what one might call "Physics for
poets"

"Theory of relativity in 15 minutes"
( http://www.btinternet.com/~j.doyle/SR/sr2.htm )

Another nice summary using some formulas:

"DERIVATION OF THE SPECIAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY "
( http://www.tardyon.de/space.htm )

A third one, explaining the therory in rather simple words:

"The Historical and Conceptual Background of the Special Theory of Relativity"
( http://www.geocities.com/newmodel2k/Introduction.htm )


I hope these links will be helpful for you. Please post a
clarification request if anything should still be unclear.

till-ga


Search strategy:

( ://www.google.de/search?sourceid=navclient&hl=de&ie=UTF-8&q=%22Special+Theory+of+Relativity%22+axioms
)
and
( ://www.google.de/search?sourceid=navclient&hl=de&ie=UTF-8&q=%22Theory+of+Relativity%22+axioms
)

Request for Answer Clarification by lindsaylohan-ga on 10 Sep 2004 08:19 PDT
Thanks Till for your links! It's really helpful!
But I have a small question: "Is there 2 or 3 axioms of ToR?" I did
some searchs like you and got into many pages, some said there are 2
axioms, others said 3; In fact, how many axioms does this Theory have?
Can you show them as exactly as Einstein said?

Clarification of Answer by till-ga on 10 Sep 2004 09:15 PDT
There are 2 axioms, not three in the theory.
Einsteinīs 
"explanation arose from two axioms: one was Galileo's old idea that
the laws of nature should be the same for all observers that move with
constant speed relative to each other; and the other was that the
speed of light is the same for every observer. Special relativity had
several striking consequences because the absolute concepts of time
and size are rejected. The theory came to be called the "special
theory of relativity" to distinguish it from his later theory of
general relativity, which considers all observers to be equivalent."

from:
( http://www.fact-index.com/a/al/albert_einstein.html )

I could not find a quote from Einstein however.

Request for Answer Clarification by lindsaylohan-ga on 10 Sep 2004 23:27 PDT
http://www.muppetlabs.com/~breadbox/txt/al.html
I think it's a really fun page. Just have a look!
Oh badly I think I become like this Theory!

Clarification of Answer by till-ga on 11 Sep 2004 01:44 PDT
I had a look, itīs fun.

till-ga

Request for Answer Clarification by lindsaylohan-ga on 11 Sep 2004 11:09 PDT
Till, could you please help me find out this: People said that if you
go with high speed (eg about 0.9c) in a ship, time in your ship will
be lot slower than earth's time (and when you land on earth again,
everybody's so OLD). But I don't see that way!
Now just image you're a Super Man who can moves really fast. One day
you walk down the street and see a man falling from a high building.
You run to him as fast as you can to save him. We all know the faster
speed you run, the littler high the man falls. If you run really fast
(eg 0.9c) everything around seems to be "freeze" while you can run,
jump and watch them carefully. So while other people is "freeze,"
their hearts don't even beat - your body does its "normal" activities.
I mean, so you will quickly get OLD while others is still "normal."
Can you help me explain this?

Clarification of Answer by till-ga on 12 Sep 2004 03:02 PDT
I hope that the comment of my dear colleaugue mathtalk-ga clarifies your question.
If you still need more background please accept that your request for
clarification goes beyond the scope of your original question. Maybe
you can consider to post it as a separate question.

till-ga
lindsaylohan-ga rated this answer:4 out of 5 stars
Simple searchs but works well!

Comments  
Subject: Re: Show me Axioms of Theory of Relativity
From: seankubin-ga on 11 Sep 2004 12:28 PDT
 
superman would see everybody get old, he himself would not.

I heard this scenario explained in a hawking's film from the vantage point of
two astronauts.  One of the astronauts falls into a black hole, and
quickly accelerates to its core.  His friend onboard the ship,
assuming he could actually see what was happening to his unfortunate
coworker, would see the astronauts watch tick slower and slower and
slower.  And as the astronaut finally reaches the event horizon his
watch would freeze to a stop.  And there he would remain until his
speed was reduced, or his matter annihilated.
  The falling astronaut would not notice any fluctuation in the
ticking of his watch.  He would however see in rapid succession the
next few billion years fly by.
So in the situation of superman, if he was infact to accelerate to the
tremendous speed of light then he would never be able to reach the
falling man.
To clarify, superman would infact be froze in one spot, but he would
be so compressed (infinitly so) that his identifiable presence would
be nigh impossible to detect.
  If superman could throttle back his speed to a tiny tiny fraction of
that of light, sure.  he would save the day, and become a little
'younger' than his generation.
Subject: Re: Show me Axioms of Theory of Relativity
From: mathtalk-ga on 11 Sep 2004 20:28 PDT
 
The essence of what lindsaylohan-ga has asked for Clarification of is
known as the "Twin Paradox", and a Google search on that term will
provide a number of useful resources.

The first point to be made is that "special relativity" deals only
with uniform motion, not acceleration (or gravity, which in the
general theory of relativity is shown to be equivalent to
acceleration).  So we cannot properly apply special relativity to the
case of "Super Man" going faster one moment than he did before.

If two observers pass one another, each in uniform motion relative to
the other, at something close to the speed of light, then each will
perceive (if such measurement is possible) the other's heartbeat to be
slower than their own (due to time dilation of special relativity). 
There is no question of "never reaching" the other observer here, as
we stipulate that they pass one another during their mutual
observations.

We know both from the general theory of relativity (and the evidence
of scientific experiments with clocks sent into orbit) that this time
dilation is not paradoxical.  The discrepancy that might be
anticipated (both being "younger" than the other) never materializes
because of the effects of acceleration (and gravity) on the "clock",
as speeding off in one direction and turning around to return requires
acceleration.

A recent issue of Scientific American (Sept. 2004 special issue)
discusses the need to incorporate corrections for Einstein's time
dilation into GPS satellite onboard clocks.  See page 55:

"Because of the velocity of GPS satellites, onboard clocks run about
seven microseconds slower per day than ground clocks.  The weaker
gravitational pull on the satellites adds another relativistic effect,
making clocks run 45 microseconds faster per day.  Hence, a correction
factor must be calculated that effectively turns back onboard clocks
by 38 microseconds per day to yield accurate GPS data."

regards, mathtalk-ga
Subject: Re: Show me Axioms of Theory of Relativity
From: lindsaylohan-ga on 12 Sep 2004 01:13 PDT
 
Thank you, seankubin-ga and mathtalk-ga!
You help me see thru that!

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