Special Relativity 1

Question 1

1905-Postulates

Answer 1

1) All laws for physics have the same functional form in any inertial reference frame
2) Speed of Light (vacuum) is the same in any inertial reference frame

Question 2

Aether

Answer 2

A very rareified and highly elastic substance formerly believed to permeate all space, including the interstices between the particles of matter, and the to be the medium whose vibrations constituted light and other electromagnetic radiation.

Question 3

The Greek symbol __ is the speed of a reference frame, expressed as the fraction of the Speed of Light

Answer 3

Beta

Question 4

In spite of the popular press given to__ Special Relativity was actually developed by many people

Answer 4

Einstein

Question 5

Lorentz, Poincare’, Fitzgerald, and Heaviside tried to solve the crises of the late 1800s by examining__.

Answer 5

Electromagnetic-Fields

Question 6

Length contraction was postulated by George Fitzgerald (1889) and Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (1892) to explain the negative outcome of the Michelson-Morey experiment and to rescue the hypothesis of the stationary aether.

Answer 6

Fitzgerald-Hypothesis

Question 7

The classical transformation between reference frames

Answer 7

Galilean

Question 8

Non-accelerating reference frame

Answer 8

Inertial

Question 9

The Special Relativity transformations between reference frames

Answer 9

Lorentz

Question 10

A word popular during the years 1850-1920 which means “producing or transmitting light”

Answer 10

Luminiferous

Question 11

Experiments which attempted to detect the existence of aether, a supposed medium permeating space that was thought to be the carrier of light waves

Answer 11

Michelson-Moreley

Question 12

The Michelson-Moreley experiment

Answer 12

The Most Famous Failed Experiment

Question 13

If Newton’s laws are valid in one reference frame then they are also valid in another reference frame moving at a uniform velocity relative to the first system.

Answer 13

Newtonian-Principle-of Relativity

Question 14

Examples of these reference frames include: rockets during an acceleration phase, the rotating Earth, accelerating spaceships..

Answer 14

Non-Inertial

Question 15

Minkowski and Einstein tried to solve the crises of the late 1800s using the __ used in most textbooks today.

Answer 15

Popular-treatment

Question 16

An idea stated without proof

Answer 16

Postulate

Question 17

Comparing the values for measurements made in different coordinate systems

Answer 17

Relativity

Question 18

Ignatowski, Frank, and Rothe dealt with the __ and imbedded assumptions and special cases in the Minikowski & Einstein approach.

Answer 18

Short-comings

Question 19

This theory addresses transformations between non-accelerating reference frames

Answer 19

Special Relativity

Question 20

Popular news stories and movies often talk about __ travel, i.e. faster than the speed of light, even tohough there is no evidence for it despite 130 years of science.

Answer 20

Super-luminal

Question 21

Two crises with reference frame __ in the late 1800s were

1. Nobody can find the aether
2. Maxwell’s Eqns are not Galilean Invariant–that is, Maxwell’s Eqns require the speed of light to have a fixed value, unaffected by moving reference frames

Answer 21

Transformations