The suggested time for exploring this discussion about the topic of the consequences of the postulates of Special Relativity Theory is 45 minutes.
Albert Einstein developed the Special Relativity Theory in 1905. According to this hypothesis, when objects move across space and time at a constant speed, they are related. One issue with Special Relativity Theory relates to objects moving and nearing the speed of light, which is typically abbreviated as c and is roughly 300,000 km/s.
Special Relativity Theory is a theory that predicts how events are measured with various observers who are in motion with respect to an event. An “event” is just a physical happening, e.g., exploding firecrackers, a passing rocket, or a flash of light.
What’s so “special” about the Special Relativity Theory? This is because each observer’s reference frame, or perspective, is a special type of reference frame called an inertial reference frame. This means that the observer is at rest and not accelerating from the observer’s perspective.
The Special Relativity Theory has two postulates or assumptions:
1. The Relativity Postulate, where it is assumed that the laws of physics are the same in all inertial reference.
2. The Speed of Light Postulate, where it is assumed that the speed of light in a vacuum is always the same.
According to the relativity of simultaneity, which is a concept in special relativity theory, it is physically impossible for two events to occur simultaneously for two observers if they are separated by distance or position.
Time dilation is the apparent difference in the time interval between two events as measured by two clocks. Albert Einstein concluded that the faster you move through space, the slower one moves through time. This concept is best demonstrated through another thought experiment.
Length contraction is the phenomenon in which an observer at rest would observe a moving object’s length to be shorter than its proper length. In everyday lives, length contraction, just like time dilation, is negligible.
One of Albert Einstein’s most famous equations, the mass-energy equivalence, is the principle that concludes that anything that has a mass also has an equal amount of energy.
This equation suggests that all objects with mass, including those at rest, have inherent energies (kinetic energy, chemical energy, mechanical energy, nuclear energy, etc.) since the value of c is very huge. These energies can be used to power an engine or do other tasks, like illuminating a bulb.
Because no substantial object can ever achieve or surpass the speed of light for reasons that are basic to physics, this equation also proves that this speed is the absolute and ultimate speed.
For centuries, scientists thought that speed has no limit. But Albert Einstein showed that in fact that there is a speed limit, and it is the speed of light in a vacuum. Based on his calculations, as an object travels faster, the more massive it needs to be. And as objects become more massive, more energy will be required for it to move faster. Therefore, it will take an infinite amount of energy for an object to reach the speed of light.