Physics education research, electronic materials, and the musings of Christopher Moore, Ph.D.

Many people probably heard of the special theory of relativity. But a lot of people don't know what it is. This essay is about the special theory of relativity. This theory describes the motion of particles moving nearly at the speed of light. Now don't get confused because Newton wasn't wrong just because his equations are simpler. They are still within the theory of relativity  but simpler. But some things are different.
    The first physicists thought that space and time stayed the same. But as time moved on we began to realize that space and time change. Not only that but we learned about the space time. Normally we think of space and time as two different things. But they aren't they are two parts of one thing: the space time continuum.
Section I. Space and Time
    Lets say you are going to go somewhere you'll need four numbers the longitude, the latitude, how much space. And of course the time. You think of them as total opposites but in physics terms its the same thing. The space time continuum may be hard to understand but you might need to understand this to understand the theory of special relativity. The concept of spacetime combines space and time within a single coordinate system typically with three spatial dimensions: length, width, height, and one temporal dimension: time. Dimensions are components of a coordinate grid typically used to locate a point in a certain defined "space" as, for example, on the globe by latitude and longitude. In spacetime, a coordinate grid that spans the 3+1 dimensions locates "events" (rather than just points in space), so time is added as another dimension to the grid, and another axis. This way, you have where and when something is. Unlike in normal spatial coordinates, there are restrictions for how measurements can be made spatially and temporally. These restrictions correspond roughly to a particular mathematical model  which differs from Euclidean space in its manifest symmetry.
    Formerly, from experiments at low speeds, time was believed to be independent of motion, progressing at a fixed rate in all reference frames ; however, later high-speed experiments revealed that time slowed down at higher speeds (with such slowing called "time dilation" explained in the theory of "special relativity "). Many experiments have confirmed time dilation, such as atomic clocks onboard a Space Shuttle running slower than synchronized Earth-bound inertial clocks and the relativistic decay of muons  from cosmic ray showers. The duration of time can therefore vary for various events and various reference frames. When dimensions are understood as mere components of the grid system, rather than physical attributes of space, it is easier to understand the alternate dimensional views as being simply the result of coordinate transformations.
Section II. Energy
    E=MC2 is probably the best known equation in the world. But what does it tell us? This tells us the energy corresponding to a mass m at rest. What this means is that when mass disappears, for example in a nuclear fission process, this amount of energy must appear in some other form. It also tells us the total energy of a particle of mass m sitting at rest. Einstein also showed that the correct relativistic expression for the energy of a particle of mass m with momentum p is E2 = m2c4 + p2c2. This is a key equation for any real particle, giving the relationship between its energy (E), momentum  (p), and its rest mass (m).
Section III. Momentum
    Newton gives us an equation for non-relavilistic objects that defines mommentum: p = m v. P is momentum and is the product of mass and velocity. But when speed becomes relavilistic it has to be changed to P= gamma (mv).
Section IV. Gamma

c is the speed of light
v is the speed of the object in question
Y is Gamma   
For example, when an electron has traveled ten feet along the accelerator it has a speed of 0.99c, and the value of gamma at that speed is 7.09. When the electron reaches the end of the linac, its speed is 0.99999999995c where gamma equals 100,000.

This was written by Alexander Ritter.