In my physics class, i choose to do Albert einstein, and i need to do an experiment based on his theories.?

Question

Basically give me the reqruired materials to do the experiment, and how to do it.

Answer 1

Bending of light was the first experiment.
It its true it could be dupplicated by using a big ball of lead and shine a laser beam of light tangent to it and measure on the projecting wall how much it bends This would prove that light particle is a micromass having the property of mass.
Note the angle of the bending is very small so to measure it ,the distance of projection should be long enough for measuring the angle. The measurement can be done by using mirror Just like Michelson did.The Greater the gravitational mass the greater the bending of light.
Note In Einstein's days there was no laser beam technology , So they used the Sun and star light for their experiment.


Another is the Inertial Time Dilation.
It this is true , it can be demonstrated by observing the motion of a fast moving object like a train from a frame of reference loctated at a Great distance ,and observe the time it takes for the train to move once centimer on the frame of reference, as compared to the time it takes for the train to move the same distance on its proper frame of reference .Knowing the speed of the train on its own frame you can determine the time dilation.
This would show that when you observe any moving object from a long distance even though its moving very fast, but from your point of observation you see it moving very slow. Sometime they appear to stand still, just like the stars.

The other is the warping of Space
If that is true an experiment can be made by puttting a Lead Ball with a string attached inside the volume of Jello.
Of course you have to wait till the Jello solidifies. before the experiment can be done.
Then slightly pull on the string and shine a light thru the jello and see how its distorted.

Observe the portion of the ball where the string is attached and compare the distortion by taking sequential snapshots.

The distortion should be proportional to the pressure on the ball. The jello represents Space. The distortion represents the force per Unit area or the energy per Unit volume.
The speed of the distortion depends how fast the string is pulled.
This would prove that deformation of space is a function of space pressure. And time indicates how fast the deformation is taking place.

Another is the Gravitational Time dilation
If Time is affected by the pressure of Gravity than an experiment can be made by Using a Pendulum Clock and observing its period at different gravity levels.
To do this you need a Pendulum Clock a a good chronometer.
At sea level (use as the Basic gravity level)measure the period of the clock's swing using a chronometer and clock it.
Then take the same clock at high altitude on a mountain and repeat the measurement. Then compare the difference in the Period. If there is a difference ,then it would prove that Gravitational Time is a function of the Gravity field pressure levels.

Another is SpaceTime
If there is a relationship between space and time an experiment can be made to determine it.
For this experiment a bicycle pump is needed and a chronometer as well. Take the pump and pump it.Then plug the end of the hose so the air does not escape. Then release it a measure the time it bounces back. Do this at different pumping distances and measure the time and compare.
The air represents space at different pressure levels .
The experiment would prove that at different space pressures ,Time changes. That would mean that Time and velocity levels of motion is not the same at different parts of the Universe as compared to the local space on Earth.

Another is the Precession of the Planet Mercury's Perehelium
This was done by observation of the motion of that planet and is time consuming and not easy to observe. However an experiment can be set up to mimic it. Basically it would indicate that if the Mass of Planet Mercury increases with time due to Solar and Cosmic mass radiation absorbtion,would cause a continual change in Mercury's Orbital. Hence there would be changes in the posistion of the Perehelium. This is what is called "Precession of the Perehelium".
Einstein proved this mathematically.

There are other experiments that can be made to reveal wherther a theory repesents reality or Not. Use your imagination to set up experiments and see what they prove.

Its very vely simple.

Answer 2

Wow... you probably took a larger bite than you can possibly chew.

OK... light bending experiment... forget about it. The lead ball thing and laser are just pure nonsense. It takes the sun for the gravity and the light of a star near the edge of the sun during a total solar eclipse to observe that effect. Alternatively you can try to "rent" the facilities at the Arecibo observatory for a planetary radar experiment. Good luck with that proposal for a school experiment.

http://www.signale.de/arecibo/pics/Arecibo_Observatory.jpg

The by far "easiest" tabletop experiment one can do to test special relativity DIRECTLY is by measuring the relativistic electron mass. But even that requires more stuff and time than you will have.

Theoretically... but just theoretically a smart kid with a really good telescope and a lot of patience can observe the Mercury perihelion precession. At 43 arc seconds a year it's doable in a couple of years. But I believe your assignment is due soon? And I doubt your parents will or even should let you observe Mercury for months near sunset and sunrise...

The lead-ball jelly thing is kinda neat, but it is nothing but a visualization, of course. You could as well just program your computer to generate a relativistic movie. That would actually be the more modern way of doing the same thing... but again, lots of non-trivial math involved, none of which will be accessible to you right now (maybe in five years when you are well into your university studies on physics).

Somehow I can't imagine you can do anything much about relativity.

You could, sort off, do photo-effect. That's what Einstein got his Nobel price for, anyway. You would need a prism to separate sunlight into its components (i.e. make a spectrum). Then you could use a small photo diode (50 cents to a couple of dollars at www.mouser.com or www.digikey.com) to scan along that spectrum. In the near IR you will see this drop in photo current where the band edge of the semiconductor is... but that is kind of a poorly controlled experiment without the ability to properly calibrate the spectrum and cool the diode. One could make it work... but it won't be impressive unless you have access to vacuum photo diodes and a monochromator...

Hmm.... if you have access to a microscope with camera, you could try to take a movie of the random walk of a small particle in a liquid. Einstein predicted the proper formula for this Brownian motion. Highly relevant, mathematically probably accessible on your level.

Then there is absorption and stimulated emission... but it takes an optics lab to do an experiment on that.

I am running out of ideas here... this is just VERY HARD. I am a physicist and I would not try any of this at home. Seriously. This is tough stuff. Good stuff, but just completely out of my and likely your reach experimentally.

Answer 3

If you are talking about his theory of relativity, I'm afraid you've chosen a tough lab. In the absence of very expensive measuring equipment, the effects of relativity can't readily be seen except in cases of extremely massive objects (like stars), or extremely fast-moving objects (like subatomic particles in a particle accelerator). Relativity just can't be demonstrated using household materials.

You might have better luck demonstrating something like the photoelectric effect (Einstein's work on this earned him the Nobel prize), although the experimental setup for this still requires some pretty fancy equipment. Look up "photoelectric effect" on the web for more details.