Chapter 39:Relativity

What evidence do we have that the velocity of light is a universal constant? What is the significance of that observation?

Why do we say that the speed of light is the speed limit of the universe?

If you could make a detailed observation of the Enterprise as it passed the Earth at 90% of the speed of light, what conclusions would you draw about the measurement of lengths and times on the ship?

If you were on the Enterprise moving at 90% of the speed of light past the Earth, what observations would you make about the measurement of length and time on the ship?

What kinds of evidence exists for length contraction and time dilation in real experiments?

If you were in a spaceship traveling past the Earth at 0.9 c and another spaceship was traveling toward you, also at 0.9 c, with what speed would you see the other ship approaching?

You encounter the terms "Galilean transformation" and "Lorentz transformation" often in literature about relativity. Under what conditions are the different transformations needed to describe nature?

What happens to the mass of an object as it approaches the speed of light? Does light have mass? Does light have momentum?

Describe the implications of Einstein's famous equation, E=mc . How does it handle kinetic energy?

What is the principle of equivalence? Why is it important in the search for the effects of general relativity?

What is the difference between special relativity and general relativity?

What experiments are cited to support the ideas of general relativity?

What is meant by gravitational red shift? Has it been observed?

What ideas from relativity suggest the existence of black holes?

*Ideas of relativity

*Michelson-Morley experiment

*Aberration of starlight

*Double star images

*Relativity concepts

*c as speed limit

*Relativistic mass

*Length contraction

*Time dilation

*Muon experiment

*Einstein velocity addition

*Galilean transformation

*Lorentz transformation

*Momentum of light

*Mass of photon?

*Cambridge example

*E=mc^2

*Relativistic kinetic energy

*Principle of equivalence

*General relativity

*Advance of perihelion of Mercury

*Bending of starlight

*Gravitational redshift

*Gravitational time dilation

*Red shift examples

*Black holes

*Cygnus X-1

Index
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