Such a system is an inertial frame of reference. Such an observer might set up an elaborate system of measuring rods and other physical devices to fix the positions of events and an elaborate system of clocks to fix their timing. Observer." It is just an observer who moves inertially. While the speed stays the same, the direction does not. This includes motion at uniform speed in a circle. Part of that structure is the existence of special motions, the inertial motions.īased on a file that has been donated to the Wikimedia Foundation and released into the public domain by Pearson Scott Foresman.(PSF).pngĪny other motion is accelerated. In the theory, empty space is rich in structure. That idea is not sustainable in special relativity. The loose talk surrounding relativity theory could lead one to think that empty space is nothing at all.
Principles of electrodynamics melvin schwartz free#
We do that by observing things in motion when they are free of deflecting forces or by correcting the motions we observed for the deflecting effects of these motions. Which of all possible motions in space comprise the inertial motions. The existence of such motions as the natural default is a fundamental fact about space and time. They will be pointed in different directions and will be at different speeds. The easiest example to visualize is a huge spaceship with the engines turned off, gliding through some remote part of space, far away from stars and planets.Īt any point in space, many inertial motions are possible. Any body left to itself in space will default to an inertial motion, which is just motion at uniform speed in a straight line. There is a preferred motion in space known as inertial motion. To understand Einstein's special theory, we need some preliminary notions. The theory of 1905 came to be called the "special" theory to distinguish it from the later extension, "the general theory of relativity." Over the coming decade, Einstein sought to develop his theory of 1905 in a way that would extend the treatment of relative motion to accelerated motion and would, at the same time, incorporate gravitation. The qualification "special" was not originally part of the theory. The theory Einstein described is now known as the "special theory of relativity." It is a "theory of relativity" because it is based on the relativity of inertial motion. He argued that altering our understanding of the behavior of space and time could resolve certain problems in electrodynamics. It contained his special theory of relativity. In June 1905, when Albert Einstein was still a patent examiner in Bern, Switzerland, he sent a paper with this title to the journal Annalen der Physik. "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies"
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