Physics for World Leaders and Informed Citizens

SC/NATS1945A 6.0

Lesson 11: Relativity

Lecture Outline

Relativity Theory
• Motivated by objections to Newton’s ‘action at a distance’ force and Mercury’s
unaccounted-for orbital precession
• Relativity Theory: describes motion (Special Relativity) and gravity (General Relativity)
more correctly than Newton’s laws

Special Relativity
• Relativistic motion: motion at speeds near c (speeds greater than 10% of c is an
approximate limit)
• Time dilation: the slowing down of time when moving at relativistic speed or in a strong
gravity field
Proof: observed in decay rates of radioactive particles when moving at relativistic speeds
• Length contraction: the shortening of an object’s length when moving at relativistic
speeds or in a strong gravity field
Proof: flattening of relativistic ions observed from collisions in particle accelerators
• Time dilation & length contraction can only be observed from an inertial frame (ie, a
non-accelerating observation point)
• An object’s relative velocity is always less than c, and the relative speed of a photon is
always c (ie, c is invariant)
• The mass of a moving object (ie, its relativistic, or kinetic mass) increases at relativistic
speeds
• As an object’s speed approaches c, its mass approaches infinity
since it takes infinite energy to accelerate infinite mass, c cannot be exceeded
• Antimatter: particles equal in mass to electrons, protons or neutrons but opposite in
charge
• Invariant/Rest mass: the source of an atom’s rest energy E = mc2
• Matter/antimatter engine: when matter & antimatter collide, matter is annihilated and
rest energy is released

General Relativity
• General Relativity (GR) states: mass curves the space around it, forcing moving objects
to follow the curvature of space
• Proofs of GR:
Precession of Mercury’s orbit
Bending of starlight around the Sun
Gravitational lensing
• The successful tests might indicate that other predictions of GR are possible!
(wormholes, multidimensional universes, etc.)

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