can somebody explain me the relativity?

Question

I don't mean a scientific explanation, just the words that lead understanding for an ordinary mind

Answer 1

It means you aren't supposed to date your cousin.

Actually, it means that space and time are relative to an observer's speed and gravity. Really deep stuff, but unless you going on a space mission or travelling near the speed of light, it has little bearing on your everyday life.
Wikipedia has a good breakdown on it, but it gets deep quick.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_relativity

Answer 2

I really recommend a comic book called Einstein for Beginners.

Here is what Einstein wondered. In classic Physics, let's say that you throw a ball at 90 mph. It goes 90 mph. But if you are riding on a train at 70 mph, a person on the tracks sees your ball go 70 + 90 or 160 mph if you throw toward the front of the train and 70 - 90 or -20 mph if you throw toward the back.

What Einstein said is what about light? If you shine a light beam on a moving object, it is still measured at the speed of light. Why? What he realized is that the difference in velocity v2-v1 should be divided by sqrt(1-v^2/c^2). Where v is very small, like 90 mph, this is so close to 1 that it doesn't matter. When v is very large, like a sizeable percentage of the speed of light, this fraction comes into play.

From someone standing still, the mover's reference plane seems shorter than normal, and time seems to slow down. But to the mover, the person standing still is the one who appears to be shorter and slowing down.

This is why it is called the theory of relativity.

Answer 3

Relativity is all about perspective. Take this example:

Pretend you are riding on a skateboard traveling at 5 mph and you throw a baseball in the direction that you are moving. What is the speed of the ball?

Well, the answer depends on who's point of view you measure from.

From your point of view on the skateboard, the ball's speed is equal to the speed at which you threw it (pretend you can't see the ball move against the still background).

But from an observer on the ground, the speed of the ball is equal to the speed at which you threw it PLUS the speed you are traveling on the skateboard (5 mph).

The same situation is true with everything except light. The speed of light is invariant; in other words it doesn't matter whose perspective you measure from, the speed of light will always be the same.

Answer 4

Because the measured speed of light does not change for a moving observer, something must change the observer who is moving. What happens is that the thickness of the observer facing front and the length of a ruler lying in the direction of travel both get shorter as speed increases. Further consequences are that as energy is poured in to increase speed, mass increases (E = mc^2) until it becomes impossible to actually reach the speed of light if an object has mass and that acceleration produces a change of time so that an atomic clock in orbit (acceleration to curve the path) shows a change of time with respect to a clock on earth.

Answer 5

I could be wrong but from what i get -by bending space you can travel through time faster.

That is the theory of relativity in a nutshell i believe

Answer 6

time is relative to velocity . The faster you go, the more time slows down. When you reach the speed of light, time essentially stops.