SPECIAL

RELATIVITY
TIME AND LENGTH
 BEFORE
1905
• Albert Einstein was an
unknown 25-year-old clerk
in the Swiss patent office.
• Newton’s laws ruled
supreme in the past 200
years.
• Many people were of the
opinions that anything
worth discovering in Physics
had been discovered
 Annus Mirabilis
[The Extraordinary Year]
• Published several papers:
1. Brownian motion (settled the debate on the existence of atoms)
2. Photoelectric effect (kick-started quantum mechanics, eventually won the Nobel
Prize for the work)
3. Special relativity (profound change in the foundation of physics)
• Ended the year with a paper with the equation E=mc2, arguably the most famous
equation in physics.
• The only other annus mirabilis in history:
• 1666 when Newton wrote Principia
 The Special Theory of Relativity
• Special relativity is the study of motion. It led to astonishing discovery
about the nature of space and time.
• It laid the foundation for an even more profound work of Einstein, the
General Theory of Relativity.
• It will take him another 10 years to complete General Relativity.
Einstein himself said that compared with General Relativity, Special
Relativity was a child’s play.
 Some Implications
1. Events that are simultaneous for one observer may not be simultaneous
for another.
2. When two observers measure a time interval or a length, they may not
get the same results.
3. The equivalence of energy and mass (E=mc2)
4. Space and time are no longer considered separate entities and is
combined into four-dimensional space-time.
5. Expansion or contraction of the universe.
6. The existence of exotic objects like black holes, worm holes.
 What is time?
• Time can be defined as
the dimension based on
which the evolution of
any system takes place.
It can be measured in
terms of seconds,
minutes, hours, days,
weeks, months, and
years.
 Some questions
• What does a beam of light look like if you are traveling at the speed of
light? In other words, what does a “stationary” beam of light look
like.
• If you are holding a mirror as you fly, what will you see in the mirror?
Will you see your own face?
 • Light is an electromagnetic wave, described by Maxwell’s
equation.
• According to Maxwell’s equation the speed of light is given
by:

Some facts
about light
 Motion
• When you say you are driving at 60mph, what exactly does that
mean?
• It means your car is moving at 60mph relative to the surface of the
earth.
• If you are piloting a spaceship, suppose you are moving at 1000km/s,
what exactly does that mean?
• Relative to earth? What if you are far from earth? What if the earth is
destroyed? Perhaps relative to space??? But then what is space?
 Motion is relative
• Einstein believes there is no absolute space, and hence no absolute
motion.
• It makes no sense to say one is moving at 100m/s without saying
“relative to what”.
• If that is true, then what does it mean to say the speed of light is
c=3×108m/s? What is the speed relative to???
 Einstein’s answer
• What is the speed c=3×108m/s relative to?
• Einstein says the speed is 3×108m/s relative to everything!
• [actually, it is relative to any inertia frame, but more about that later]
• If that doesn’t sound strange to you, suppose someone tells you
Einstein is driving a car on the freeway at 50mph. The odd thing is,
whether you are standing on the ground, driving behind him or
driving toward him, you will still find his speed to be exactly 50mph.
 The constancy of c
• Einstein believed Maxwell’s equations dictated the constancy of the speed
of light, and he was also influenced by philosophy that there is no absolute
space.
• In fact, around the time Einstein was coming to this conclusion, Albert
Michelson performed the famous Michelson-Morley experiment,
experimentally proving that c=3×108m/s independent of your state of
motion.
• Einstein, however, claimed that he had not heard of the experiment at the
time.
 Inertial frame
• When you are accelerating in a car (when you are stepping on the gas
or making a sharp turn), you will feel a force acting on you.
• Inertial frames are observers who do not experience such force.
• Example:
• A spaceship moving freely in outer space with all the engines turned
off.
• An object under free fall in a gravitational field.
 Two Postulates
1. The principle of relativity: All the laws of physics are the same in all
inertial reference frames.
2. The constancy of the speed of light: The speed of light in vacuum has
the same value in all inertial frames, regardless of the velocity of the
observer or the velocity of the source emitting the light.
• From these two simple postulates Einstein constructed special
relativity and started a revolution in physics.
 The problem with time
• Two events E1, E2:
• E1: Sam jumps on the right side of the room
• E2: Sally jumps on the left side of the room
• Somebody says:
• E1 and E2 happened at the same time.
• What is wrong with this statement?
The relativity of simultaneity
The relativity of simultaneity
Einstein’s light clock

• Since the speed of light is fixed,

we can bounce a photon up and
down to measure time.
• Sally put such a light clock in her
spaceship. From her point of
view:
What happens
if the clock is
moving?
• Sam is on the ground watching
Sally and her clock flies by.
The situation
Sam’s View
 Time Dilation.
• Time dilation refers to
the seemingly odd fact
that time passes at
different rates for
different observers,
depending on their
relative motion or
positions in a
gravitational field.
Two Point’s of View
 What if I use a different clock?
• The first postulate ensures that there cannot be any difference between a
light clock and a “normal” clock, including your biological clock.
• If your wristwatch and the light clock do not show the same time, by
comparing a light clock with a wristwatch you could tell you are in
absolute motion or not (when there really is no such thing).
• Conclusion: Time really does slow down!
• The laws of physics are the same for observers in all inertial reference
frames. No one frame is preferred over any other.
Time Dilation Verification – Muon Decays

• Muons are unstable particles that have the same charge as an electron,
but a mass 207 times more than an electron
• Muons have a half-life of ∆tp = 2.2 µs when measured in a reference
frame at rest with respect to them (a)
• Relative to an observer on the Earth, muons should have a lifetime of
• γ ∆tp (b)
• A CERN experiment measured lifetimes in agreement with the
predictions of relativity
 Twins
Paradox
• The apparent paradox
arising from relativity
theory that if one of a
pair of twins makes a
long journey at near the
speed of light and then
returns, he or she will
have aged less than the
twin who remains
behind.
 GPS and Relativity
• GPS (Global Positioning System) satellites are moving at 14000km/h. Each
satellite carries atomic clock within 30ns precision. Fix your position to within
10m.
• Special relativity tells us time on the satellites slows down by 7μs per day.
• General relativity (gravitational effect) tells us time on the satellite goes faster by
45μs per day.
• Overall clocks on satellites gain 38μs per day, which is 38000ns.
• If not taken into account, GPS fails within minutes, generating an error of 10km
per day.
 Calculations with Lightyear
• In this chapter, you will often encounter the unit of lightyear. A
lightyear is defined as the distance light travels in a year. It is a unit of
distance, not a unit of time.
• In a calculation in relativity, however, you will almost never convert
lightyear into meters. You are almost always better off writing
1ly=(1c)(1y).
• For example, how long does it take for a spaceship travelling at 0.6c to
get to a galaxy 10ly away (from earth’s view)?
Relativity of length
 Length Contraction
• The measured distance between two points depends on the frame of
reference of the observer
• The proper length, L0, of an object is the length of the object
measured by someone at rest relative to the object
• The length of an object measured in a reference frame that is moving
with respect to the object is always less than the proper length
• This effect is known as length contraction
Length Contraction – Equation
THANK YOU!