Special Relativity is the generally accepted and experimentally well-confirmed physical theory regarding the relationship between space and time.
In Albert Einstein's original pedagogical treatment, it is based on two postulates:
1.the laws of physics are invariant in all inertial systems / non-accelerating frames of reference.
2.the speed of light in a vacuum is the same for all observers, regardless of the motion of the light source.
Today, special relativity is the most accurate model of motion at any speed when gravitational effects are negligible. Even so, the Newtonian mechanics model is still valid as a simple and high accuracy approximation at low velocities relative to the speed of light.
Special relativity implies a wide range of consequences, which have been experimentally verified, including length contraction, time dilation, relativistic mass, mass–energy equivalence, a universal speed limit, the speed of causality and relativity of simultaneity. It has replaced the conventional notion of an absolute universal time with the notion of a time that is dependent on reference frame and spatial position.
Rather than an invariant time interval between two events, there is an invariant spacetime interval. Combined with other laws of physics, the two postulates of special relativity predict the equivalence of mass and energy, as expressed in the mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc2, where c is the speed of light in a vacuum.
In Albert Einstein's original pedagogical treatment, it is based on two postulates:
1.the laws of physics are invariant in all inertial systems / non-accelerating frames of reference.
2.the speed of light in a vacuum is the same for all observers, regardless of the motion of the light source.
Today, special relativity is the most accurate model of motion at any speed when gravitational effects are negligible. Even so, the Newtonian mechanics model is still valid as a simple and high accuracy approximation at low velocities relative to the speed of light.
Special relativity implies a wide range of consequences, which have been experimentally verified, including length contraction, time dilation, relativistic mass, mass–energy equivalence, a universal speed limit, the speed of causality and relativity of simultaneity. It has replaced the conventional notion of an absolute universal time with the notion of a time that is dependent on reference frame and spatial position.
Rather than an invariant time interval between two events, there is an invariant spacetime interval. Combined with other laws of physics, the two postulates of special relativity predict the equivalence of mass and energy, as expressed in the mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc2, where c is the speed of light in a vacuum.
