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Physics Honors AB –Day 12/9 & 12/10 Special and General Relativity
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Agenda Special Relativity Time Dilation Problem Length Contraction General Relativity Implications for Gravity
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Historically – where are we? Luminerous Ether – The medium in which light traveled just like sound waves in air Proposed by Aristotle and common belief up until the end of the 19 th Century
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Historically – where are we? Michelson-Morley Experiment conducted in 1887 unexpectedly helped to disprove the existence of the Ether
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Albert Einstein Studied Physics as a graduate student at Swiss Polytechnic University Worked in Patent Office and Married with a child when he published his 4 papers in 1905
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1905 - The Miracle Year Einstein published 4 papers – the photoelectric effect, Brownian Motion; Special Relativity and the equivalence of matter and energy – that would alter the course of modern physics The papers greeted with apathy Then he got 1 Fan
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The Special Theory of Relativity Einstein was obsessed with light and James Clark Maxwell, the father of Electromagnetic Theory. Had a simple question that had large implications “What would you see if you rode on a beam of light?”t But First let’s discuss what is meant from Relativity
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Galilean-Newtonian Relativity
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What would be the velocity…
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So what would happen if it was a light beam instead of a pitch
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So what does keeping the speed of light constant affect?
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Time dilation Let us look at the set up below, a light beam travels to roof of rail car then back down To the person on the car, the light travels at the speed of light To the stationary observer
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Length Contraction
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Twin Paradox
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Special Relativity … Only valid for non accelerating reference frames Once you have acceleration it falls apart He wanted to incorporate Gravity
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General Theory of Relativity
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Mass causes a curvature in Space-Time
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2 Mass causes a curvature in Space-Time
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How does Gravity Propagate
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Light interacting with Curved Space - Time
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Gravitational Lensing After World War I, British Scientist proved Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity by observing the bending of star light during a solar eclipse
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Gravitational Lensing Einstein Cross
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Gravitational Lensing Einstein Ring
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For Test Explain why Einstein is so important to Physics. What were his contributions and how are they apparent today? Be specific and give examples Historical Documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHvpTScJBMI Panel Discussion – Some awesome Physicists discuss Einstein https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EOpHHjv5g8
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