Related papers: Theory of Special Relativity
The development of both special and general relativity is accomplished in a series of 6 papers using a simple approach. The purpose is to explain the how and why of relativity to a broad public, and to be useful for students of physics by…
We present the special theory of relativity taking the Doppler effect as the starting point, and derive several of its main effects, such as time dilation, length contraction, addition of velocities, and the mass-energy relation, and…
The goal of this lecture is to introduce the student to the theory of Special Relativity. Not to overload the content with mathematics, the author will stick to the simplest cases; in particular only reference frames using Cartesian…
These lecture notes are intended for starting PhD students in theoretical physics who have a working knowledge of General Relativity. The 4 topics covered are (1) Surface charges as conserved quantities in theories of gravity; (2) Classical…
In these notes we give an introductory unified treatment to the topics of special relativity, Lorentz transformations and the Lorentz group, Einstein velocitiy addition, and gyrogroups and gyrovector spaces. An effort has been made to…
The special theory of relativity has fundamentally changed our views of space and time. The relativity of simultaneity in particular, and the theory of relativity as a whole, still presents significant difficulty for beginners in the…
This paper aims to provide teachers with a tool to teach the essential features of special relativity, considering the students' difficulties highlighted by numerous studies. Our proposal presents special relativity as the solution to the…
This work analyzes the difficulties in learning and teaching Einstein's theory of special relativity. An extensive bibliographic review has been performed, considering articles published in the most relevant journals on science education,…
We present a comprehensive introduction to the kinematics of special relativity based on Minkowski diagrams and provide a graphical alternative to each and every topic covered in a standard introductory sequence. Compared to existing…
A modest aim of this pedagogical presentation is to analyze, critically, certain fundamental physical concepts to illustrate the physical principles behind the special theory of relativity and, hence, to also illustrate the limitations of…
These lectures notes contain an introduction to General Relativity. They are addressed to a general mathematical audience with no specific background in physics. The goal is to motivate and explain Einstein's theory of gravity and discuss…
Since some experiments have found superluminality, we assume that the particles in the universe are divided into three classes: the subluminal, luminal and superluminal particles by the speed of light, their energy-momenum relations are E2…
The properties of the light, the Lorentz transformations and the relation mass-energy are introduced using the wave picture of the light and of the massive particles.
Nature succeeds in accelerating extended and massive objects to relativistic velocities. Jets in Active Galactic Nuclei and in galactic superluminal sources and gamma-ray bursts fireballs have bulk Lorentz factors from a few to several…
We highlight the correspondence between one-dimensional Lorentz transformations, which relate events observed from two distinct inertial reference frames, and ray transfer transformations in Gaussian optics. Specifically, we identify…
This paper has pedagogical motivation. It is not uncommon that students have great difficulty in accepting the new concepts of standard special relativity, since these seem contrary to common sense. Experience shows that geometrical or…
These notes represent approximately one semester's worth of lectures on introductory general relativity for beginning graduate students in physics. Topics include manifolds, Riemannian geometry, Einstein's equations, and three applications:…
As an expansion of complex numbers, the quaternions show close relations to numerous physically fundamental concepts. In spite of that, the didactic potential provided by quaternion interrelationships in formulating physical laws are hardly…
A century after its formulation by Einstein, it is time to incorporate special relativity early in the physics curriculum. The approach advocated here employs a simple algebraic extension of vector formalism that generates Minkowski…
Theory of Relativity (Special and General) is one of the most influential theories of the 20th century and has changed the way we view the world. It is part of many undergraduate curriculums and it is often suggested that it should be…