Module 2: THEORY OF RELATIVITY

Overview:

In this module……

Learning Outcomes:

After completing this module:

1. You will be able to define Relativity.

2. You will be able to identify the different topics related to Theory of Relativity.

3. You will be able to know the scientist, physicist and chemist behind the theory of Relativity.

4. You will be able to value it's essential to our day by day lives.
age name

Activity
ACTIVITY 1
TITLE: RELATIVE MOTION
OBJECTIVE: TO UNDERSTAND THE CONCEPT OF RELATIVITY.
MATERIALS:
BICYCLE
STONE
BLINDFOLD
RIDING A VEHICLE (SUCH AS: BUS, TRICYCLE, CAR, & JEEPNEY)

PROCEDURE:

1. Go to the second floor of any building, and drop a stone to the ground.
2. Ask someone to ride a bicycle, and as he ride forward, let him drop the stone next to
him.

3. Try to ride a bus or any vehicle and cover your eyes and put an earphone to your ear.
4. Try to ride a bus or any vehicle and do not cover your eyes.
5. Try to ride a bus or any vehicle, and toss your comb or cellphone up, as you are sitting
your sit.
ANALYSIS:
1. In procedure number 1, since the Earth is moving, do the stone falls many yards away
from the track? Why?

2. In procedure 2, do the stone land right below the biker’s hand or it land behind him?
Write your observation.

3. In procedure 3, can you feel that you are moving forward? Why?

4. In procedure 4, can you feel that you are moving forward? Why?

5. Do the comb or cellphone fly to the back of the bus or any vehicle or it will land back
to your hand?

Abstraction
2.1 RELATIVE MOTION

Relative Motion
The laws of physics which apply when you are at rest on the earth also apply when you
are in any reference frame which is moving at a constant velocity with respect to the
earth. For example, you can toss and catch a ball in a moving bus if the motion is in a
straight line at constant speed.

The motion may have a different appearance as viewed from a different reference
frame, but this can be explained by including the relative velocity of the reference frame
in the description of the motion.

Relative Velocity
 One must take into account relative velocities to describe the motion of an
airplane in the wind or a boat in a current. Assessing velocities involves vector
addition and a useful approach to such relative velocity problems is to think of
one reference frame as an "intermediate" reference frame in the form:

Put into words, the velocity of A with respect to C is equal to the velocity of A
with respect to B plus the velocity of B with respect to C. Reference frame B is
the intermediate reference frame. This approach can be used with
the airplane or boat examples.

 The velocity of an object A relative to another object B is the velocity that object
A would appear to have to an observer moving with B.

Have you ever been sat in a stationary train at a station, and seen another train
moving off forwards? Did you feel you were moving backwards even though you
knew you were stationary?
 To you, sitting on the stationary train (A), or to a person on the platform, the
moving train (B) appears to be travelling at a velocity v, away. However, to a
person on the moving train the platform and the stationary train at the platform
both appear to be moving in the opposite direction with the same speed, or to
put it another way, with the opposite velocity. Really what we are measuring in
all of these cases is the velocity relative to an observer.

2.2 GALILEO THEORY OF RELATIVITY

Galileo Galilie

The Italian scientist and mathematician Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642) is perhaps most famous for
his use of early telescopes in order to make astronomical observations. He is considered one of
the founders of modern science and in many ways was far ahead of his time. He made many
contributions to science, such as the mechanics of falling bodies and moving projectiles. In
doing so he also formulated the first modern theory of relativity. As with much of Newton's
work, Galileo's theory turned out to be correct only at "low" speeds but it's still instructive and
helps in the understanding of Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity.
Galileo Galilei (1564 – 1642)
If an event takes place and two people see it from different locations how can they agree on
when and where it happened? This question, in one form other, is called the "central problem
of relativity". At first glance this problem has quite an easy solution. Let's imagine you and I
both see a stationary firework explode. You are standing in one location and I am standing a
little further away. As we see the explosion we both look at our (synchronized) watches and
note the time. We then pace out the distance to the remnants of the firework. We should agree
on the time of the explosion but our distance measurements will be different. In other words
we will have both witnessed the same event relative to each other. So far so good. Now let's try
another experiment. This time instead of both watching a stationary event we will add some
movement. You are on an aircraft travelling at 500 mph and I am on the ground. You decide to
go and speak to the pilot and walk forward in the aero plane towards him or her at 5 mph.
What is your speed now? I see you move at 505 mph, but you feel that you are moving at only 5
mph. Again, we have to take our relative positions into account but this time we need to
include the movement involved. This is all so easy that we don't even have to think about it in
everyday life. Instead of being as difficult as is sometimes supposed, relativity is actually a very
old and very simple idea. There is really only one problem; what co-ordinate system should we
use? 400 years ago Galileo thought he knew...
Stationary Frames
x’ = x - Vty’ = yz’ = zt’ = t
In order to work out when and where an event took place we need to take the viewpoints of
different observers into account. One way to do this, and which is adequate at speeds much
lower than the speed of light, is to use the Galilean transformation co-ordinate equations.
Stated mathematically they are:
To understand what this means consider two 'frames', A and B, in space. An event takes place
in frame A and we want to be able to say where and when that event took place. This is quite
easy; we can give the event the spatial co-ordinates x, y, and z, and a time co-ordinate of of t.
So, for example, we could say that the event took place at 5x, 3y and 4z, and at a time of
6t.Now let's imagine that we observed the same event from another place in space, from frame
B. What would the co-ordinates of the same event be now? If both frame A and frame B are
stationary with respect to each other this is also simple. We just need to apply an extra
measurement factor to each of the co-ordinates in frame A. Once we have done this we can call
the co-ordinates x, y, z and t in frame A and x’, y’, z’ and t’ in frame B.For example, in frame A
the x-co-ordinate of the event was 5x but as measured from frame B it might be 25x. In other
words, we would have to multiply any x event in frame A by five to find out the co-ordinates of
the same event (x') in the origin of frame B:

Now let's add movement, and therefore time, into the picture.
Moving Frames
Imagine that a train passes you and after 6 seconds you see a flash of light from the train. The
train is moving at 80 mph. How far away was the train when the light flashed? To make our
calculations easier we will convert miles per hour into metres per second: 80 mph is about 130
km/h, which is about 36 metres per secondWe need to use the x-co-ordinate transformation to
work this out, but there is something we might like to do first. We have chosen our origin (x'
and x) to be at zero (that is, the place we were standing at when the train went by). If we use x'
= x - Vt as it is we will get a negative result. In reality this isn't a problem, but it looks a little
odd. So, for the sake of clarity, we will change the equation to be x' = x + Vt. Now, let's plug the
numbers into the equation and find the answer:

So, as viewed from the stationary frame the flash of light was about 216 meters away. In other
words the x'-co-ordinate is 216 m. As viewed from the train the event was zero meters away.
That is, the x-co-ordinate is 0 m. The example given is really very simple but it illustrates an
important point; we have sets of co-ordinates that are relative to each other. We have a simple
"theory of relativity", and one that works very well in most cases. The only problem is,
ultimately, it's wrong.

Common Sense versus Reality

Galileo's relativity can be thought of as nothing more than common sense with a few numbers
added to it. Indeed, it works very well at "low" speeds and is still in use today. Even the co-
ordinate systems used to track and guide the fastest rockets use a version of his equations. So
what's wrong with it? We have seen from other pages in this series that “moving clocks run
slow.” The faster the clock moves as a percentage of the speed of light the more it slows down.
What's more, this has been demonstrated to be correct in all sorts of experiments and even
practical applications such as the GPS system. In Galileo's system time is constant and clocks
simply can't change their rate. If we use x’ = x - Vt then the observed time will always be the
same in both the moving and stationary frames. For this reason alone we have to reject
Galilean co-ordinate transformations in the wider sense. Another problem stems from the
spatial co-ordinates. The space-time dilation equations as applied by Einstein tell us that
distances shrink in the direction of motion. According to Galileo's system this is not the case.
His equations state that an object will always remain the same length regardless of its speed.
For example, imagine a rod accelerating to a very high speed, say 90% of the speed of light (0.9
c). We can label the ends of the rod (L1 and L2) and then apply the x-co-ordinate
transformation equation to measure its length. The diagram below shows what Galileo's system
predicts:

This result states that the rods stay the length regardless of speed. This is incorrect.
From experimental evidence as well as modern theoretical predictions we know that the
moving rod would shrink in the direction of motion and so we have another failure of the
Galilean transformation equations. Although Galilean relativity matches our own common
sense and is certainly a good approximation at speeds much lower than that of light it is
ultimately wrong. For a system of co-ordinate transformation equations to be correct under all
circumstances we have to take space and time dilation into account. This is accomplished using
Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity.

Postscript on Galileo
This page may have given the impression that Galileo and his ideas can be dismissed. That is far
from being the case. He was one of the first people to start to quantify the universe around us
and as such was one of a small handful of people that turned speculative and fuzzy ideas into
modern science. In doing so he made many lasting contributions to physics. To list just a few:
The discovery of the four largest moons orbiting Jupiter. This was the first evidence that at least
some bodies in the universe do not orbit the Earth. The relationship between a swinging
pendulum's length and the time taken for it to return to its starting position. This discovery
allowed the first accurate mechanical clocks to be constructed. The realization that when two
objects of different masses are dropped at the same time they both reach the ground at the
same time (providing there is not dissimilar air resistance on the objects). Newton used this
information in forming his Theory of Universal Gravitation.

It is also astonishing that he built time into some of his equations long before accurate clocks
were available. In his lifetime Galileo was often dismissed by fellow academics and punished by
the church for holding heretical ideas, particularly that the Earth revolved around the Sun. He
was sentenced to permanent house arrest by the Inquisition in 1633 and died, still under house
arrest, nine years later. In 1979 the Catholic Church started an investigation into Galileo's
condemnation and in 1992 a papal commission acknowledged that an error had been made. In
1989 NASA launched the Galileo space probe. Its mission was to provide information about
Jupiter and its four largest moons, a task it carried out with enormous success, making many
important discoveries, before being plunged into the Jovian atmosphere in 2003.

An artist’s impression of the Galileo space probe passing Jupiter’s moon Io

An artist’s impression of the Galileo space probe passing Jupiter’s moon Io

2.3 Principle of Relativity

In physics, the principle of relativity is the requirement that the equations describing the laws
of physics have the same form in all admissible frames of reference.

For example, in the framework of special relativity the Maxwell equations have the same form in
all inertial frames of reference. In the framework of general relativity the Maxwell equations or
the Einstein field equations have the same form in arbitrary frames of reference.
Several principles of relativity have been successfully applied throughout science, whether
implicitly (as in Newtonian mechanics) or explicitly (as in Albert Einstein's special relativity and
general relativity).

Basic Concepts
Certain principles of relativity have been widely assumed in most scientific disciplines. One of
the most widespread is the belief that any law of nature should be the same at all times; and
scientific investigations generally assume that laws of nature are the same regardless of the
person measuring them. These sorts of principles have been incorporated into scientific inquiry
at the most fundamental of levels.

Any principle of relativity prescribes a symmetry in natural law: that is, the laws must look the
same to one observer as they do to another. According to a theoretical result called Noether's
theorem, any such symmetry will also imply a conservation law alongside. For example, if two
observers at different times see the same laws, then a quantity called energy will be conserved.
In this light, relativity principles make testable predictions about how nature behaves, and are
not just statements about how scientists should write laws.

Special Principle of Relativity

According to the first postulate of the special theory of relativity:

Special principle of relativity: If a system of coordinates K is chosen so that, in relation to it,

physical laws hold good in their simplest form, the same laws hold good in relation to any other
system of coordinates K' moving in uniform translation relatively to K.

— Albert Einstein: The Foundation of the General Theory of Relativity, Part A, §1

This postulate defines an inertial frame of reference.

The special principle of relativity states that physical laws should be the same in every inertial
frame of reference, but that they may vary across non-inertial ones. This principle is used in both
Newtonian mechanics and the theory of special relativity. Its influence in the latter is so strong
that Max Planck named the theory after the principle.

The principle requires physical laws to be the same for any body moving at constant velocity as
they are for a body at rest. A consequence is that an observer in an inertial reference frame
cannot determine an absolute speed or direction of travel in space, and may only speak of speed
or direction relative to some other object.

The principle does not extend to non-inertial reference frames because those frames do not, in
general experience, and seem to abide by the same laws of physics. In classical physics, fictitious
forces are used to describe acceleration in non-inertial reference frames.
In Newtonian mechanics

The special principle of relativity was first explicitly enunciated by Galileo Galilei in 1632 in his
Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, using the metaphor of Galileo's ship.

Newtonian mechanics added to the special principle several other concepts, including laws of
motion, gravitation, and an assertion of an absolute time. When formulated in the context of
these laws, the special principle of relativity states that the laws of mechanics are invariant
under a Galilean transformation.

In special relativity

Joseph Larmor and Hendrik Lorentz discovered that Maxwell's equations, the cornerstone of
electromagnetism, were invariant only by a certain change of time and length units. This left
some confusion among physicists, many of whom thought that a luminiferous aether was
incompatible with the relativity principle, in the way it was defined by Henri Poincaré:

The principle of relativity, according to which the laws of physical phenomena should be the
same, whether for an observer fixed, or for an observer carried along in a uniform movement of
translation; so that we have not and could not have any means of discerning whether or not we
are carried along in such a motion.
— Henri Poincaré, 1904

In their 1905 papers on electrodynamics, Henri Poincaré and Albert Einstein explained that with
the Lorentz transformations the relativity principle holds perfectly. Einstein elevated the
(special) principle of relativity to a postulate of the theory and derived the Lorentz
transformations from this principle combined with the principle of the independence of the
speed of light (in vacuum) from the motion of the source. These two principles were reconciled
with each other (in Einstein's treatment, though not in Poincaré's) by a re-examination of the
fundamental meanings of space and time intervals.

The strength of special relativity lies in its derivation from simple, basic principles, including the
invariance of the laws of physics under a shift of inertial reference frames and the invariance of
the speed of light in a vacuum. (See also: Lorentz covariance.)

It is, in fact, possible to derive the Lorentz transformations from the principle of relativity alone
and obtain the constancy of the speed of light as a consequence. Using only the isotropy of
space and the symmetry implied by the principle of special relativity, one can show that the
space-time transformations between inertial frames are either Galilean or Lorentzian. In the
Lorentzian case, one can then obtain relativistic interval conservation and the constancy of the
speed of light.
General Principle of Relativity
The general principle of relativity states:

All systems of reference are equivalent with respect to the formulation of the fundamental laws
of physics.

— C. Møller The Theory of Relativity

That is, physical laws are the same in all reference frames—inertial or non-inertial. An
accelerated charged particle might emit synchrotron radiation, though a particle at rest doesn't.
If we consider now the same accelerated charged particle in its non-inertial rest frame, it emits
radiation at rest.

Physics in non-inertial reference frames was historically treated by a coordinate transformation,

first, to an inertial reference frame, performing the necessary calculations therein, and using
another to return to the non-inertial reference frame. In most such situations, the same laws of
physics can be used if certain predictable fictitious forces are added into consideration; an
example is a uniformly rotating reference frame, which can be treated as an inertial reference
frame if one adds a fictitious centrifugal force and Coriolis force into consideration.

The problems involved are not always so trivial. Special relativity predicts that an observer in an
inertial reference frame doesn't see objects he would describe as moving faster than the speed
of light. However, in the non-inertial reference frame of Earth, treating a spot on the Earth as a
fixed point, the stars are observed to move in the sky, circling once about the Earth per day.
Since the stars are light years away, this observation means that, in the non-inertial reference
frame of the Earth, anybody who looks at the stars is seeing objects which appear, to them, to
be moving faster than the speed of light. Since non-inertial reference frames do not abide by the
special principle of relativity, such situations are not self-contradictory.

General Relativity
General Relativity was developed by Einstein in the years 1907 - 1915. General relativity
postulates that the global Lorentz covariance of special relativity becomes a local Lorentz
covariance in the presence of matter. The presence of matter "curves" spacetime, and this
curvature affects the path of free particles (and even the path of light). General relativity uses
the mathematics of differential geometry and tensors in order to describe gravitation as an
effect of the geometry of spacetime. Einstein based this new theory on the general principle of
relativity, and he named the theory after the underlying principle.
Application
1. Why the Papal commission acknowledged that the error had been made in regards to
Galileo’s condemnation?
2. Galileo’s theory turned out to be correct only at ____________ speed but it still
instructive and helps in the understanding of Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity.
3. What is Relative Motion?
4. Give example of relative motion.
5. What is Relative Velocity?
6. Assessing velocities involve vector addition and a useful approach to such relative
velocity problems is to think of one reference frame as an _______________________
reference frame.
7. Who formulated the first modern theory of relativity?
8. Give example of relative velocity.
9. ____________________ is the Italian Scientist and Mathematician, famous for his use of
early telescope in order to make astronomical observation.
10. Why was Galileo punished by the church?
11-15. The Special Principle of Relativity states that ____________________________.
16-20. The General Principle of Relativity states: ______________________________.

Reflection

_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_______.
 Page name
REFERENCES

https://www.emc2-explained.info/Related-Pages/#.YFev6a8zY2w

https://www.emc2-explained.info/Related-Pages/#.YE3TLmgzY2w

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Aristotle/Philosophy-of-mind

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Galileo-Galilei/Telescopic-discoveries

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nicolaus-Copernicus/Publication-of-De-revolutionibus

Bantilan, Monica Montaña and Montaña, Rizalina Asuncion. College Physics. Manila, Philippines: Rex
Book Store

EXCEL ACADEMIC COUNCIL 2009. Complete Mathematics & Engineering Sciences & Applied Subjects
Theories & Formulas for Electrical Engineers Board Examinees & Students. Cebu City, Philippines: First
Benchmark Publisher Inc.

Brescia, Frank; Arents, John; Meislich, Herbert; and Turk, Amos. Fundamentals of Chemistry Fourth
Edition. Mandaluyong, Metro Manila, Philippines: Cacho Hermanos, Inc.

Brown, Larry and Holme, Tom. Chemistry for Engineering Second Edition. Printed in the Philippines:
ESP Printers, Inc.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/modern-physics

newscientist.com/term/quantum-physics

www.nuclear-power.net

Prepared by:

Alma Glori

Part-time Lecturer

Delicia C. Inghug, Ph. D.

Head College of Education