Avery Polak

Mr. Yackuboskey

Honors Physics 9

1 May 2018

Special Relativity and Time Dilation

Albert Einstein challenged the idea that time is absolute in 1905. He wrote a paper called

“The Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies,” and in this paper, he explained the theory of

relativity. “The special theory of relativity applies to observers and events that are moving with

constant velocity (in uniform motion) with respect to one another,” (Serway and Faughn 68). A

postulate from the theory of relativity by Einstein, is that the light speed is equal for any

observer, no matter if there is any motion between the observer and the light. This postulate

follows James Clerk Maxwell’s light wave equations. In addition, Armand Fizeau preformed an

experiment in 1851 which supported this postulate by Einstein (Serway and Faughn 68).

The phenomenon that is called time dilation takes place when there are “two objects

moving relative to each other experience different rates of time flow," (Thought Co.). This

relates to Einstein’s special theory because he explained that the speed of light is the same for

any observer. For instance, if the speed of light is the same for both the observer on a moving

object and the observer on the ground, and they each travel different distances, then the time

intervals must be different for each observer. So, the observer on the ground has a longer time

interval then the observer on the moving object. This explains the effect which is known as time

dilation (Serway and Faughn 69).

 The equation for time dilation is: Δt’ = Δt/ √1-v^2/c^2. In the equation, Δt’ symbolizes

the time interval which is measured by the observer on the ground and Δt represented the time

interval measured by the person of the moving object. “According to special relativity, no wave

or particle may travel at a speed greater than the speed of light c,” (Science World). Additionally,

v stands for the velocity or speed of the moving object relative to the person on the ground

(Serway and Faughn 69).

Time dilation is considered true for all physical processes, which includes biological and

chemical reactions. There are many examples of time dilation in the everyday world. The Global

Positioning System (GPS), the navigation system, has to adjust for time dilation. “Ground-based

devices have to communicate with satellites. To work, they have to be programmed to

compensate for the time differences based on their speeds and gravitational influences,”

(Thought Co.). In addition to that, the clocks from airplanes work differently than the clocks on

the ground. They click differently when they are in the air (Thought Co.).

In the classroom, time dilation is used when discussing energy, velocity, acceleration,

etcetera. However, in class, there has not been a lot of discussion on time dilation specifically,

there has been more talk about special relativity. Special relativity takes place in many of our

labs and experiments, homework, and classwork. It is used whenever we talk about uniform

motion, velocity, displacement, and many other things.

 Work Cited

Jones, Andrew Zimmerman. “Time Moves in Mysterious Ways Due to Speed and Gravity.”

ThoughtCo, www.thoughtco.com/time-dilation-2699324.

Serway, Raymond A., and Jerry S. Faughn. Physics. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing

Company, 2016.

“Special Relativity -- from Eric Weisstein's World of Physics.” Scienceworld.wolfram.com,

scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/SpecialRelativity.html.