"It has, of course, been known since the days of the ancient Greeks that in order to describe the movement of a body, a second body is needed to which the movement of the first is referred."
- Albert Einstein
"There is not the slightest indication that energy will ever be obtainable from the atom."
- Albert Einstein
(in Robert Youngson, Scientific Blunders: A brief history of how wrong scientists can sometimes be.)
Michelson-Morley experiment. Speed of light.
Galilean-Newtonian relativity. Inertial frames of reference. Principle of Relativity.
Problems with Maxwell's equations. Lorentz transformations.
Einstein's postulates. Simultaneity. Time dilation and length contraction.
Relativistic effects at low and high speeds. Twins paradox.
Momentum and mass in relativity. Rest mass. The ultimate speed.
Energy in relativity. Rest energy. Mass and energy relationship. Mass as a measure of energy.
Photon's mass and momentum. Converting mass into energy in annihilation.
Defect mass and binding energy. Applications in Nuclear Physics.