What is the theory of relativity?

Question

Albert Einstein

Answer 1

E=mc squared

E is energy
m is mass
c is a constant: the speed of light.

The theory connects mass with energy, hence 'relativity'

Answer 2

E=mc². It states that any mass can be converted into large amounts or energy and vice versa.
Read "Relativity" by Albert Einstein, or read Wikipedia. I've done both. Or check out the link below for a quick explanation said by the genius himself.

Answer 3

Albert Einstein's 1905 paper "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" introduced the special theory of relativity. Special relativity considers that observers in inertial reference frames, which are in uniform motion relative to one another, cannot perform any experiment to determine which one of them is "stationary". This is actually Galileo's principle of relativity; Einstein's contribution was to explicitly include electromagnetism within this principle, which required that the Galilean transformations be replaced by the Lorentz transformations. The resultant theory has many surprising consequences. In particular, it requires that the speed of light in a vacuum be the same for all these observers, regardless of their motion, or the motion of the source of the light, since the invariance of the speed of light is a consequence of Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism.

Answer 4

Nobody has addressed the "relativity" portion of the question. We know the equation and what the letters stand for: Energy = Mass X speed of light to the second power. This equation describes or theorizes how time becomes "relative" or is no longer constant for the person/object traveling at the speed of light vs. the observer who is not moving. For example a person moving at the speed of light will have experienced 5 minutes much differently from an observer waiting 5 minutes for the traveler to return. That's the short and sweet of it =)

Answer 5

The total energy of something equals the mass of whatever we're talking about times the speed of light squared.
E=mc^2, However, this is only a theory since we haven't really been able to do a lot of this "creating a ton of energy from a little bit of matter" stuff.

This would imply that a few kilograms of anything would supply the world with power.

Answer 6

Einstein proposed two themes to relativity - the Special Theory of Relativity and the General Theory of Relativity.

Before the theory of relativity ; the best theory to describe the motion of stars and planets was Isaac Newton's 400 year old Principia Mathematica which attributed certain laws of motion and gave very precise approximations of mass and force and how they interacted with each other. see Vectors. However it was ineffective at calculating the motion of Mercury's orbit around the sun and was impractical at the microcosmic level. But neverthe less it withstood for 400 years which is testimony to its effectiveness.

Albert Einstein's theory describes in its simplistic terms of the interaction of massive objectives with respect to space and time.

A massive object will distort space in the same way as a cannonball would if placed on a trampoline. i.e it would create a distortion or dent in the fabric. If you were to roll a marble either side of the cannonball, the marble would be deflected to a certain extent depending on the speed and proximity of the 2 objects.

If the marble were to approach the cannonball too closely it would spiral around the cannonball drawing closer and closer until it collided with it and come to rest.

The other aspect of relativity is how time is woven into the fabric of space - a term called spacetime. It was long known that the speed of light was absolute , constant ,and it was measured to a very precise value. Einstein imagined a journey along a ray of light and how the speed of light would vary from an observor at rest compared to an observor travelling at or near to the speed of light. To his astonishment he discovered that the speed of light was the same regardless whether you are stationary or not. This he ascribed as special relativity - for any observor the speed of light is constant - however time and space are not constant but are relative to the observer's point in space and time. If you imagine 2 trains leaving a station in opposite direction's at a speed of 20mph - to the person on the platform he would observe the trains moving away at the same speed relative to his stationary position. Now imagine you are at the rear cabin of one of those trains - you would experience the other train drawing away from you at a relative speed of 40 mph - if the train were to suddenly come to a halt you would note that the other train was moving at a speed of 20 mph. In the everyday experience of moving object this is well understood - however at the near light speeds time is affected as you approach the speed of light the passage of time as recorded by the moving observor is slower.

The speed of light is the same for all observors at any speed and is absolute. It is a constant regardless of the observors motion and independent of any source or location from which it measured from.

Answer 7

Omigosh....you want that answer here??

Einstein actually developed 2 theories: The Special Theory of Relativity and his General Theory of Relativity.

In a tiny nutshell, it pertains to the constancy of the velocity of light. Check out alberteinstein.com for a lot of info on this topic.

Answer 8

It is expresses by the equation E = MC^2

E is energy, M is mass and C is the speed of light,

Einstein stayed that a relationship exist between energy and matter and this equation is how that relationship is expressed. Similiar D=RT, distance = rate times time. To go 5 miles, you must travel 5 miles per hour for one hour.

Answer 9

which one? there is the Special Theory of Relativity and his General Theory of Relativity.

to understand the theories of relativity you will need to go back to Aristotle, Galileo, Newton and all the other great minds up to Einstien to see how Einstein developed his theories. however understanding Newton's Three Laws of Motion and Newton's Law of Gravitation will set you on the right path

Newton's Three Laws of Motion

Newton's Frist Laws of Motion
I. Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.

Newton's Second Law of Motion:
II. The relationship between an object's mass m, its acceleration a, and the applied force F is F = ma. Acceleration and force are vectors in this law the direction of the force vector is the same as the direction of the acceleration vector.

Newton's Third Law of Motion:
III. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Newton's Law of Gravitation

Newton's Universal Law of Gravitation states that any two objects exert a gravitational force of attraction on each other. The direction of the force is along the line joining the objects. The magnitude of the force is proportional to the product of the gravitational masses of the objects, and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them

Special Relativity
Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity is valid for systems that are not accelerating. Since from Newton's second law an acceleration implies a force, special relativity is valid only when no forces act. Thus, it cannot be used generally when there is a gravitational field present
Some of the important implications of the Special Theory of Relativity. For example, the most famous is probably the relationship between mass and energy. Other striking consequences are associated with the dependence of space and time on velocity: at speeds near that of light, space itself becomes contracted in the direction of motion and the passage of time slows. Although these seem bizarre ideas (because our everyday experience typically does not include speeds near that of light), many experiments indicate that the Special Theory of Relativity is correct and our "common sense" (and Newton's laws) are incorrect near the speed of light.

General Relativity
The General Theory of Relativity was Einstein's stupendous effort to remove the restriction on Special Relativity that no accelerations (and therefore no forces) be present, so that he could apply his ideas to the gravitational force. It is a measure of the difficulty of the problem that it took even the great Einstein approximately 10 years to fully understand how to do this. Thus, the General Theory of Relativity is a new theory of gravitation proposed in place of Newtonian gravitation.

the theoretical physicist Albert Einstein introduced his Special Theory of Relativity in 1905 and his General Theory of Relativity in 1915. The first showed that Newton's Three Laws of Motion were only approximately correct, breaking down when velocities approached that of light. The second showed that Newton's Law of Gravitation was also only approximately correct, breaking down when gravitation becames very strong.

basically Newtons laws are easier to understand than Einsteins theories but only when great speeds or strong gravity are not in play. however once you start dappling with the speed of light or black holes Einsteins theories of relativity kicks in.

for instance Newtons law of gravitation states the larger object (the Sun) attracts the smaller object (a planet) and this does give good approximations to orbits for most of the planets except for mercury
einstein theory state that the sun makes a dent in the space fabric (this dent is known as curve space) causing the planets to roll inward towards the sun. this explains all the orbits of the planets including mercury. therefore einstein theory of Relativity is better than Newton theory of gravitation.

to try and explain the the dent in the space fabric. imagine that space was a blanket lay out on your bed, now using a bowling ball as the sun place it on the bed. the bowling ball will sink into your blanket causing a dent much the same way the sun cause a dent in space. now place marbles as planets around the bowling ball and will roll in towards it.

note the gravity of the sun and the velocity of the planet orbit that keeps the planet from crashing into the sun or escaping from the sun's clutches

this is my view of it and i think its correct to the best of my understanding. i admit that cut and paste a lot of the definitions above but only to cut out any mistakes. i do have a general interest in astro physics as a lay person. by answering your question also helps me to do more research.

again these are theories and could change with new infomation
link on to the site below for more details

Answer 10

theory of relativity is the understanding of the physics of acceleration, light and energy transfer, gravity, and force