WK 7 Tuesday 1.

4 Principal of relativity and special

relativity
Understand the Principle of relativity

Important concepts:
• Motion can only be measured relative to an observer; length
and time are relative quantities that depend on the
observer’s frame of reference.

• Some measured quantities of objects travelling at very high

speeds cannot be explained by Newtonian physics. Einstein’s
Theory of Special Relativity predicts significantly different
results to those of Newtonian physics for velocities
approaching the speed of light.

• The Theory of Special Relativity is based on two postulates.

The first postulate is that the laws of physics are the same in
all inertial reference frames. The second postulate is that the
speed of light in a vacuum is an absolute constant.

Inertial Reference Frame

Inertial Reference Frame is a reference frame that is not

Accelerating. In other words, it is stationary or in constant motion.
Newton's Law of Motion applies in the Inertial Reference Frame.

The same event may be observed differently in a different frame of

reference.

Relative Velocity

Topic 1 Motion and Reletavity Page 1

The person throwing the ball is stationary within the frame of reference of the
vehicle. The magnitude of the velocity of the ball is 10.0 ms–1. To the ground-based
observer the magnitude of the velocity of the ball is 30.0 ms–1

The postman observes the dog to be running with a velocity of 2.00 ms–1 to the right
(or +2.00 ms–1). The dog observes the postman’s velocity to be 2.00 ms–1 to the left
(or –2.00 ms–1).

This is known as Galilean Transformations. Galileo introduced the

concept called Relative Velocity, which is the difference in velocity
measured in two reference frames.

Speed of light is the same in all inertial reference frames. This means that the
Galilean transformation equations cannot work for light as the equations predict the
speed of light to be different depending of the frame of reference. In fact the
equations could not explain observations of objects made a very high speeds.

Topic 1 Motion and Reletavity Page 2

Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity

The Theory of Special Relativity is based on two postulates or

assumptions.

1. The speed of light in a vacuum is an absolute constant.

That is, it is the same for all inertial frames of reference.

2. The laws of physics are the same in all inertial reference frames

Topic 1 Motion and Reletavity Page 3

Complete Q105, Q106 from SASTA WORKBOOK

Topic 1 Motion and Reletavity Page 4