3.2 Special Relativity
Get up to (light) speed on Einstein's theory of relativity.
Relative Motion of Observers
Propagation of Light
The Mystery of the Luminiferous Aether
Einstein's Postulates
Derive: Lorentz Transformations
Length Contraction & Time Dilation
Relativistic Laser Tag
Cosmic Ray Muons
Spacetime Intervals and Causality
Chimp Twin Paradox
Rotations in Spacetime
Plight of the ABC Jungle Fruit
Superluminal Observations
UFO Encounter
Four-Velocity
Energy-Momentum Conservation
High-Energy Particles
Photons
Course description
This course was written in collaboration with Aaron Miller, a PhD in physics from Penn State University, and was integrated into a YouTube video series on MinutePhysics. Beginning with famous thought experiments and a few intuitive principles from Newtonian mechanics, this course closely follows Einstein's arguments leading to the epiphany that time and space are a single entity, spacetime, where physical processes unfold. After gaining experience with the mathematical machinery of relativistic physics, you will open the door to high-energy phenomena and Einstein's famous relationship, E = mc². In the end this course will boost you to the cusp of the most elegant of physical theories: general relativity.
Topics covered
- 4-vectors
- Lorentz Transformations
- Mass-energy Equivalence
- Spacetime Paradoxes
- Particle Physics
- Reference Frames
- Spacetime Curvature
- Spacetime Diagrams
- Spacetime Intervals
- Time Dilation
Prerequisites and next steps
You’ll need a fundamental understanding of Newtonian mechanics.
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