RE: A Simple Demonstration of Space/Time Relativity
August 21, 2019 at 9:23 pm
(This post was last modified: August 21, 2019 at 9:31 pm by BryanS.
Edit Reason: minor edit to add missing word
)
(August 21, 2019 at 5:37 pm)Rhondazvous Wrote: V = w * r. well, I guess that would be closer to Newton than Einstein since it involves dots on a piece of paper rather than light. Although light does behave the same way. If you swing a flashlight from side to side the light farthest from you will travel a farther distance than the light near you although it seems to be going the same speed.
Certainly, if Einstein’s special relativity theory isn’t more complex than my understanding of it, then it should be taught in grammar school. I don’t claim to be more than a student who’s not afraid to put my ideas out there to sink or swim as they may.
I don’t know if Einstein relativity violates Newtonian relativity or if it simply demonstrates the different properties of light (a boson) and a ball (fermions).
That the light moves with the flashlight when it is moved sideways but not when it’s moved forward is curious. But the flashlight itself does follow Newton.
It's not quite that Einstein's special relativity violates Newtonian relativity. But rather Newtonian relativity is a special case of Einstein's relativity. All of the laws of mechanics laid out by Newton are derived in special relativity with the two assumptions I specified. The equations are mathematically inaccessible to grade schoolers, so that is why you will not see this taught to people that young. When equations for special relativity are utilized for slow speeds relative to the speed of light, they approach the exact same form of Newtonian equations.
Special relativity is not some special property of light. But rather in formulating equations based on the assumptions of special relativity, the speed of light becomes a built in speed limit for all objects regardless of their mass. E=mc^2 is the energy derivable from special relativity for an object with mass that is at rest--the relationship between energy and mass is a direct consequence of the theory of special relativity. This relationship between mass and energy comes from a universal relative speed limit. Special relativity has little to say about bosons and fermions, which by their definitions describe a quantum property that special relativity has nothing to say on. To date, there has been no successful merging of quantum theory with relativity. Perhaps one day we will find some relevance of special relativity to quantum theory, but that day is not today.
Your example of swinging a flashlight misses the mark somewhat. Light does not "move with the flashlight". Photons emitted from the light element in the flashlight always move at exactly the same speed regardless of what you are doing with the flashlight, regardless of which way the flashlight moves, and regardless of how fast the flashlight moves.
One other thing to add...electrons are examples of fermions with mass, and these are something we can accelerate to relativistic speeds. Relativity applies to all objects, not just light.
