Question: Lecture 5
Special Relativity (Part 1)
Outline of Lecture 5
- The Postulates of Special Relativity
- Time Dilation
- Length Contraction
Answer: Classical Physics
It was perceived that light wave, just like water wave and sound wave, required a medium. The hypothetical medium was called the luminiferous ether and was assumed to fill all of space.
It was believed that the speed of light is c with respect to ether and will vary relative to the observer’s motion, i.e. slow down when observer moves in same direction and speeds up when in opposite direction.
During Galileo’s time, people believed that that speed of light is so fast that it takes no time to travel. Galileo tried to prove the “commonsense” wrong but to no avail.
However, A. A. Michelson and E.W. Morley’s famous experiments in 1883 – 1887 showed negative sign of ether’s existence, i.e. the speed of light is indeed the same in all inertial reference frames and does not depend on observer’s motion.
Moreover, J.C. Maxwell showed that c is a c...(short extract)
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- Subject: Physics
- Course: Physics
- Level: Degree
- Year: 2nd/3rd
- Mark: Not available
- Words: 620
- Date submitted: March 12, 2012
- Date written: Not available
- References: No
- Document type: Project
- Essay ID: 4031
