1. Relativity clips
- Al’s relativistic adventures
Michelson Morley experiment animation:
Picture of apparatus:
Simultaneity – Youtube clip:
Length contraction (animation nearly at the end of the article):
Summary
– shows transformation between coordinate frames moving with relative velocity v
(Effects on momentum: )

2. Maxwell’s equations

3. Relativity of space and time
An ‘event’ – a point in space / time
Time x
Distance

4. Separation in space-time
Two events
Event 2
Time x
Event 1
Separation in space-time x
Distance

5. From Einstein’s 1905 paper

6. Progression Through Time
Standing still in space (relative to an observer) means that you are progressing through the time dimension at the maximum possible rate. 0%
Progression Through Time
100%
Progression Through Space (v/c)
Time
Space

7. Progression Through Time
As you move faster through space, the rate that you progress through time has to decrease. 0%
Progression Through Time
Time
Space
100%
Progression Through Space (v/c)
25%

8. This effect of ‘time dilation’ increases with a factor of √(1-v2/c2).
That means time is 13% slower when travelling at 50% speed of light. 0%
Progression Through Time
Time
Space
100%
50%
Progression Through Space (v/c)

9. Progression Through Time
At 87% the speed of light, an hour passing in your frame would take two hours for a stationary observer. 0%
Progression Through Time
Time
Space
100%
87%
Progression Through Space

10. Progression Through Time
If you could eventually reach the 100% speed of light through space, your progression through time would stop altogether. 0%
Progression Through Time
Time
Space
100%
Progression Through Space (v/c)

11. From ‘Einstein’ by Michael White and John Cribbin
In 1925 Bertrand Russell published a book on Relativity and predicted that it would result in a new way of thinking involving greater abstraction.
This has not happened because of the lack of widespread understanding of the theory.

12. “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious
“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. Those to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, are as good as dead: their eyes are closed.”
Albert Einstein