we r learning about einsteins theory of relativety in school and i am really confused can some1 explain it to me just giving me the main facts and the standard explanation thx
Well, understanding relativity is going to take you a LOT of time. But the good part is - you can happily ignore the math if you don't insist on learning why we think so and just accept the logically understandable part of it all...
Some friends and I used to play a game: We'd sit at the local Denny's until ungodly hours of the morning and work through Einstein's theory of relativity from initial premise to conclusions... Anyone can do it with the two following premises, and simple math (nothing more high-brow than multiplication and division): Light travels at a constant rate from ANY valid viewpoint. Any non-accelerating viewpoint is valid. Take only those two bits, and then try the following experiment: Lenny and Denny start off on a planet. Denny takes off at half the speed of light, and continues at that speed travelling outwards for three days. Lenny stays at home. Each of them has a watch, and every hour on the hour, they send a signal back to the other, saying what time their watch reads. Presume that the signals travel at the speed of light. So: Work out for Denny what his timeline looks like: At what times does he send signals, and at what times does he receive signals. Then work it out from Lenny's perspective. It's a trip.
