Intuitive Special Relativity (A Tough Concept Simply Explained)

In the next week I intend to post a series of articles that explain Special Relativity in a simple and intuitive manner.

Well, at least that's my goal.

There are a lot of articles and videos on the topic already and most of them are filled with math and most of them do not explain the topic in an intuitive manner.

Although I will present some equations, I don't intend to explain the topic through math but mostly through pictures and intuitive geometrical explanations.

The Two Postulates of Special Relativity

Special Relativity (SR) has two postulates:

1. The speed of light will appear to be the same for all observers no matter how fast they are going. In other words, the speed of light is a constant. If you are on Earth you will measure it to be 300,000 km/s (186.000 miles per second). If you are in a space ship moving at 299,999 km/s (to an Earth observer) you will measure it to be 300,000 km/s (186,000 miles per second).

2. The laws of physics do not change for all frames of reference no matter what speed you are traveling.

Working from these postulates all of the predictions of SR can be derived. It's actually quite amazing really.

The Predictions of SR

In this section will list out the main predictions of SR but not explain how they are derived in this post. That will come in later posts.

Each one is a tough concept on its own and each needs to be read about, and thought about, separately.

The main predictions of SR are:

1. Time Dilation:

• The time within an object slows down with speed.

2. No Absolute Simultaneity:

• Time is relative and it depends on your frame of reference.

3. Length Contraction:

• An object moving at a high speed appears to get shorter.

4. Mass Increases With Speed:

• The mass of an object appears to increase with speed.

5. Counter-intuitive Addition of speeds:

• If you are moving at 99% of the speed of light and you shoot something out in front of you at 99% of the speed of light the projectile will not be moving at 198% of the speed of light.

Thank you for reading. - Procrastilearner

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