1.5-1.6 Special Relativity Flashcards
What was light hypothesised to travel through?
The Aether medium
Why was light hypothesised to travel through a medium?
Classical waves e.g water and sound propagate through a medium, and their speed of propagation is set relative to the medium
Describe the M.M interferometer
Light gets split into a horizontal and vertical component
- Each ray is then reflected by a mirror and then interference is observed
What was the result from the MM interferometer?
A significantly null result
What was a consequence of the null result of the interferometer?
- Error with the aether theory or wave theory
- Stokes suggested the aether was dragged along by the Earth
What is Lorentz’ force law?
F = q(E + v x B)
Why was Lorentz’ force law significant?
It connects mechanics with EM
What is the result of the d’Alembert operator operating on E and B when there are no sources?
0
What problem did Lorentz have with his Lorentz transformation?
It didn’t work with his force law
How did Einstein solve Lorentz’ problem?
He resolved LTs with mechanics and brought a new understanding of time
- Galilean and Newtonian mechanics were restricted to where v/c «_space;1
Describe Minkowski’s space time
4 dimensional, coordinates (ct, x, y, z)
How are events described in space time?
As points
Why are spacetime coordinates so useful?
- Can choose the origin of each axis
- Also change the orientation of the spatial axis via a transformation
- Change the spatial axis
What is a Lorentz Boost?
Applying a LT in the x and ct coordinates
When do we get a time like interval?
When ds^2 > 0
