Relativity Help (1 Viewer)

Lingb

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can anyone provide help for these 3 questions, have assesment due next week and struggling to find answers for these!!!!

THANKYOU SOO MUCH WHOEVER HELPS :D

Q1) Account for the need to define events in our cosmos in four dimensions.
Q2) Discuss the principles of Einstein’s theory of relativity
Q3) Identify the significance of Einstein’s assumption of the constancy of the speed of light by stating what this means for space and time.
 

ianc

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Do you have a textbook? because these are all fairly broad syllabus points which WILL be covered in quite a bit of detail; and it will be written better than most of the answers you could get from these forums.

if you have difficulty understanding specific things, post back and we'll be more than willing to help.
 

kurt.physics

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Hello,
Super nerd here to help!:)
Just joking, but i will help

Q1) Account for the need to define events in our cosmos in four dimensions.

A) The four dimensions, 3 spacial: left-right, forward-backward, top-bottom and 1 time. lets say you were to go to a mates place, he would say you have to go to bird st. (left-right) go to number 5 (forward-backward) and im on the 2nd floor (top-bottom). Now you would make it there alright, but when should you leave, you could come (most inconveinently) at 3 in the morning, 11 at night, but you wouldn't know for sure. That is why we need to give a 4 dimension, time. He would say come at 5pm.

Thats why we need to define events in four dimension

Also gravity, one of the four fundamental forces, can only opperate in 4 dimension and since Einsteins equation are acurate to 14 decimal places we have to greatly concider it.
And if something didn't exist for 1 nano second, 1 year, 1million years then it wouldnt exist at all!

Q2) Discuss the principles of Einstein’s theory of relativity

There are 2 principles in the special theory of relativity
The principal of relativity only applys to an inertial frame of reference ( Only steady motion [constant velocity] or no motion is allowed)

1)The principle states that within an inertial frame of reference you cannot preform any mechanical experiments or observations to reveal whether you were moving with uniform velocity or standing still with out reference to an out side point.

or in layman terms; you can not tell if your moving with steady motion or still unless you look out the window

2) The constancy of the speed of light; the speed of light is the same in all frames of reference and nothing can travel the speed of light.



Q3) Identify the significance of Einstein’s assumption of the constancy of the speed of light by stating what this means for space and time.

REMEMBER: SPEED = DISTANCE/TIME

Lets use a "thought experiment"

there is a Man, A, on a train travelling the speed of light. There is a nother man, B, on the embankment. Man, A, (in train) pulls out a flash light and shines it towards the front of the train. He (man in train) measures the speed of light to be 300,000 km/s (approx.). Man B decides to measure the light. He gets 600,000 km/s (because the train is already going 300,000). But how is that possible, nothing can travel faster than the speed of light.
Remembering that speed=distance/time we know the speed = c (c stands for the speed of light). So v (the speed of light) is not different, so distance and time MUST be. Einstein figured that both distance and time was variable or relative ie pending on which frame of reference you are looking at.
So we can say that both space (distance) and time are variable when object aproach the speed of light.

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Kurt.physics
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