physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

, the principle of relativity is the requirement that the equations describing the

laws of physics Scientific laws or laws of science are statements, based on repeated experiments or observations, that describe or predict a range of natural phenomena. The term ''law'' has diverse usage in many cases (approximate, accurate, broad, or narrow) ...

have the same form in all admissible

frames of reference In physics and astronomy, a frame of reference (or reference frame) is an abstract coordinate system whose origin, orientation, and scale are specified by a set of reference points― geometric points whose position is identified both mathe ...

. For example, in the framework of special relativity the

Maxwell equations Maxwell's equations, or Maxwell–Heaviside equations, are a set of coupled partial differential equations that, together with the Lorentz force law, form the foundation of classical electromagnetism, classical optics, and electric circuits. T ...

have the same form in all inertial frames of reference. In the framework of general relativity the Maxwell equations or the

Einstein field equations In the general theory of relativity, the Einstein field equations (EFE; also known as Einstein's equations) relate the geometry of spacetime to the distribution of matter within it. The equations were published by Einstein in 1915 in the form ...

have the same form in arbitrary frames of reference. Several principles of relativity have been successfully applied throughout

science Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...

, whether implicitly (as in Newtonian mechanics) or explicitly (as in

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

special relativity In physics, the special theory of relativity, or special relativity for short, is a scientific theory regarding the relationship between space and time. In Albert Einstein's original treatment, the theory is based on two postulates: # The laws ...

and

general relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity and Einstein's theory of gravity, is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of gravitation in modern physics ...

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 Law of nature or laws of nature may refer to: Science *Scientific law, statements based on experimental observations that describe some aspect of the world *Natural law, any of a number of doctrines in moral, political, and legal theory Media * ...

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 Noether's theorem or Noether's first theorem states that every differentiable symmetry of the action of a physical system with conservative forces has a corresponding conservation law. The theorem was proven by mathematician Emmy Noether ...

, 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 In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of hea ...

will be conserved. In this light, relativity principles make testable predictions about how nature behaves.

Special principle of relativity

According to the first postulate of the special theory of relativity: 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 In classical physics and special relativity, an inertial frame of reference (also called inertial reference frame, inertial frame, inertial space, or Galilean reference frame) is a frame of reference that is not undergoing any acceleration. ...

, but that they may vary across non-inertial ones. This principle is used in both Newtonian mechanics and the theory of

. Its influence in the latter is so strong that

Max Planck Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck (, ; 23 April 1858 – 4 October 1947) was a German theoretical physicist whose discovery of energy quanta won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918. Planck made many substantial contributions to theoretical p ...

named the theory after the principle.Extract of page 272
/ref> 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, seem to abide by the same laws of physics. In classical physics,

fictitious forces A fictitious force is a force that appears to act on a mass whose motion is described using a non-inertial frame of reference, such as a linearly accelerating or rotating reference frame. It is related to Newton's second law of motion, which t ...

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 Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. Commonly referred to as Galileo, his name was pronounced (, ). He wa ...

in 1632 in his ''

Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems The ''Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems'' (''Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo'') is a 1632 Italian-language book by Galileo Galilei comparing the Copernican system with the traditional Ptolemaic system. It was tran ...

'', using the metaphor of

Galileo's ship Galileo's ship refers to two physics experiments, a thought experiment and an actual experiment, by Galileo Galilei, the 16th and 17th century physicist and astronomer. The experiments were created to argue the idea of a rotating Earth as opposed t ...

. Newtonian mechanics added to the special principle several other concepts, including laws of motion, gravitation, and an assertion of an

absolute time Absolute space and time is a concept in physics and philosophy about the properties of the universe. In physics, absolute space and time may be a preferred frame. Before Newton A version of the concept of absolute space (in the sense of a pref ...

. 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 Sir Joseph Larmor (11 July 1857 – 19 May 1942) was an Irish and British physicist and mathematician who made breakthroughs in the understanding of electricity, dynamics, thermodynamics, and the electron theory of matter. His most influent ...

and Hendrik Lorentz discovered that

Maxwell's equations Maxwell's equations, or Maxwell–Heaviside equations, are a set of coupled partial differential equations that, together with the Lorentz force law, form the foundation of classical electromagnetism, classical optics, and electric circuits. ...

, used in the theory of

electromagnetism In physics, electromagnetism is an interaction that occurs between particles with electric charge. It is the second-strongest of the four fundamental interactions, after the strong force, and it is the dominant force in the interactions of ...

, 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 Luminiferous aether or ether ("luminiferous", meaning "light-bearing") was the postulated medium for the propagation of light. It was invoked to explain the ability of the apparently wave-based light to propagate through empty space (a vacuum), so ...

was incompatible with the relativity principle, in the way it was defined by Henri Poincaré: In their 1905 papers on

electrodynamics In physics, electromagnetism is an interaction that occurs between particles with electric charge. It is the second-strongest of the four fundamental interactions, after the strong force, and it is the dominant force in the interactions o ...

, Henri Poincaré and

explained that with the

Lorentz transformations In physics, the Lorentz transformations are a six-parameter family of linear transformations from a coordinate frame in spacetime to another frame that moves at a constant velocity relative to the former. The respective inverse transformation i ...

the relativity principle holds perfectly. Einstein elevated the (special) principle of relativity to a

postulate An axiom, postulate, or assumption is a statement that is taken to be true, to serve as a premise or starting point for further reasoning and arguments. The word comes from the Ancient Greek word (), meaning 'that which is thought worthy or f ...

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 by a re-examination of the fundamental meanings of space and time intervals. The strength of special relativity lies in its use of simple, basic principles, including the invariance of the laws of physics under a shift of

inertial reference frame In classical physics and special relativity, an inertial frame of reference (also called inertial reference frame, inertial frame, inertial space, or Galilean reference frame) is a frame of reference that is not undergoing any acceleration. ...

s and the invariance of the speed of light in a vacuum. (See also:

Lorentz covariance In relativistic physics, Lorentz symmetry or Lorentz invariance, named after the Dutch physicist Hendrik Lorentz, is an equivalence of observation or observational symmetry due to special relativity implying that the laws of physics stay the same ...

.) It is possible to derive the form of the Lorentz transformations from the principle of relativity alone. 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. Whether the transformation is actually Galilean or Lorentzian must be determined with physical experiments. It is not possible to conclude that the speed of light ''c'' is invariant by mathematical logic alone. In the Lorentzian case, one can then obtain relativistic interval conservation and the constancy of the speed of light.Yaakov Friedman, ''Physical Applications of Homogeneous Balls'', Progress in Mathematical Physics 40 Birkhäuser, Boston, 2004, pages 1-21.

General principle of relativity

The general principle of relativity states: 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 does not. 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 In geometry, a coordinate system is a system that uses one or more numbers, or coordinates, to uniquely determine the position of the points or other geometric elements on a manifold such as Euclidean space. The order of the coordinates is sign ...

, 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

are added into consideration; an example is a uniformly

rotating reference frame A rotating frame of reference is a special case of a non-inertial reference frame that is rotating relative to an inertial reference frame. An everyday example of a rotating reference frame is the surface of the Earth. (This article considers onl ...

, which can be treated as an inertial reference frame if one adds a fictitious

centrifugal force In Newtonian mechanics, the centrifugal force is an inertial force (also called a "fictitious" or "pseudo" force) that appears to act on all objects when viewed in a rotating frame of reference. It is directed away from an axis which is parall ...

and Coriolis force into consideration. The problems involved are not always so trivial. Special relativity predicts that an observer in an inertial reference frame does not see objects he would describe as moving faster than the speed of light. However, in the non-inertial reference frame of

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

, 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 Global means of or referring to a globe and may also refer to: Entertainment * ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003 * ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007 * ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 1989 * ''Global'' (Todd Rundgren album), 2015 * Bruno ...

of special relativity becomes a

local Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States * Local government, a form of public administration, usually the lowest tier of administrat ...

Lorentz covariance in the presence of matter. The presence of

matter In classical physics and general chemistry, matter is any substance that has mass and takes up space by having volume. All everyday objects that can be touched are ultimately composed of atoms, which are made up of interacting subatomic part ...

"curves"

spacetime In physics, spacetime is a mathematical model that combines the three dimensions of space and one dimension of time into a single four-dimensional manifold. Spacetime diagrams can be used to visualize relativistic effects, such as why differ ...

, and this curvature affects the path of free particles (and even the path of light). General relativity uses the mathematics of differential geometry and

tensor In mathematics, a tensor is an algebraic object that describes a multilinear relationship between sets of algebraic objects related to a vector space. Tensors may map between different objects such as vectors, scalars, and even other tensor ...

s in order to describe gravitation as an effect of the

geometry Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is ...

. Einstein based this new theory on the general principle of relativity, and he named the theory after the underlying principle.

Notes and references

External links

Wikibooks: Special Relativity

Living Reviews in Relativity
— An open access, peer-referred, solely online physics journal publishing invited reviews covering all areas of relativity research.

— A complete online course on Relativity.
Special Relativity Simulator

A Relativity Tutorial at Caltech
— A basic introduction to concepts of Special and General Relativity, as well as astrophysics.

— A short course offered at MIT.
Relativity in film clips and animations
from the University of New South Wales.
Animation clip
visualizing the effects of special relativity on fast moving objects.
Relativity Calculator - Learn Special Relativity Mathematics
The mathematics of special relativity presented in as simple and comprehensive manner possible within philosophical and historical contexts. {{Authority control Theory of relativity Relativity