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DLP3

The document discusses Einstein's two postulates of special relativity, which are (1) the laws of physics are the same in all inertial reference frames, and (2) the speed of light in a vacuum is the same for all observers regardless of their motion or the motion of the light source. It provides examples and explanations of these postulates, including how they contradicted 19th century theories involving the hypothetical luminiferous ether, and how relativity leads to changes in concepts of space, time, mass, and energy compared to Newtonian physics.

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francis soliven
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20 views3 pages

DLP3

The document discusses Einstein's two postulates of special relativity, which are (1) the laws of physics are the same in all inertial reference frames, and (2) the speed of light in a vacuum is the same for all observers regardless of their motion or the motion of the light source. It provides examples and explanations of these postulates, including how they contradicted 19th century theories involving the hypothetical luminiferous ether, and how relativity leads to changes in concepts of space, time, mass, and energy compared to Newtonian physics.

Uploaded by

francis soliven
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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ARELLANO UNIVERSITY

Jose Abad Santos Campus


Basic Education Department – Senior High School
3058 Taft Avenue Pasay City

Name: Neatness: 2
Grade/ Section/ Strand: Completeness: 3
Creativity: 2
Date:
Output: 8
Teacher:
Total: 15

DLP 3
Subject: GENERAL PHYSICS 2

ACTIVITY 1
A. Matching Type Match column A with column B. Write only the letter of the best answer on the space
before each number.

B. Choose the letter of the best answer.


1. Which of the following is NOT a postulate of the special theory of relativity? A. Relativity Postulate B.
speed of light postulate C. Energy Postulate
2. Which of the following physical properties does NOT change when speed of objects approaches the
speed of light? A. length B. mass C. time D. none of the above because all will change
3. Who were the two American scientists who tried to detect the existence of ether experimentally? A.
Michelson and Newton B. Michelson and Einstein C. Michelson and Morley D. Michelson and Graham
4. When an object moves at a much greater speed (closer to the speed of light), its mass increases. A.
True B. False
5. When an object moves at a much greater speed (closer to the speed of light), its length parallel to its
direction of motion will be observed to be shorter. A. True B. False
Postulates of Relativity

When the year 1905 began, Albert Einstein was an unknown 25-year-old clerk in the Swiss patent office.
By the end of that amazing year he had published three papers of extraordinary importance. One was an
analysis of Brownian motion; a second (for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize) was on the
photoelectric effect. In the third, Einstein introduced his special theory of relativity, proposing drastic
revisions in the Newtonian concepts of space and time.

The special theory of relativity has made wide-ranging changes in our understanding of nature, but
Einstein based it on just two simple postulates. One states that the laws of physics are the same in all
inertial frames of reference; the other states that the speed of light in vacuum is the same in all inertial
frames. These innocent-sounding propositions have far-reaching implications. Here are three: (1) Events
that are simultaneous for one observer may not be simultaneous for another. (2) When two observers
moving relative to each other measure a time interval or length, they may not get the same results. (3)
For the conservation principles for momentum and energy to be valid in all inertial systems, Newton’s
second law and the equations for momentum and kinetic energy have to be revised.

Relativity has important consequences in all areas of physics, including electromagnetism, atomic and
nuclear physics, and high-energy physics.

1.1 Einstein’s First Postulate

Einstein’s first postulate, called the Principle of Relativity, states that “The laws of physics are the same
in every inertial frames of reference.” If the laws differed, that difference could distinguish one inertial
frame from the others or make one frame somehow more “correct” than the other. Here is an example.
Suppose you watch two children playing catch with a ball while the three of you are aboard a train
moving with constant velocity. Your observations of the motion of the ball, no matter how carefully
done, can’t tell you how fast (or whether) the train is moving. This is because Newton’s laws of motion
are the same in every inertial frame. Another example is if you are in a bus moving with constant
velocity and you throw a ball up, it will simply fall down on your lap in free fall motion. But an observer
outside the bus, say, on the street across the moving bus, will observe the ball as a projectile which was
thrown at an angle from the horizontal.

1.2 Einstein’s Second Postulate


During the 19th century, most physicists believed that light traveled through a hypothetical medium
called the ether (a hypothetical medium pervading the universe in which light waves were supposed to
travel), just as sound waves travel through air. If so, the speed of light measured by observers would
depend on their motion relative to the ether and would therefore be different in different directions.
The Michelson-Morley experiment (using light beams and half-silvered mirror) was an effort to detect
motion of the earth relative to the ether. The results of the experiment show that no matter which
direction the beams of light were aimed, they always bounce back at exactly the same instant.
Therefore, there is no ether at all and so there is no such thing as “absolute motion” relative to the
ether. The result also shows that the speed of light is the same for all observers, which is not true of
waves (such as sound waves and water waves) that need a material medium in which to occur.

Einstein’s second postulate states that “The speed of light in vacuum is the same in all inertial frames
of reference and is independent of the motion of the source”. This postulate implies that “It is
impossible for an inertial observer to travel at c, the speed of light in vacuum.”

To illustrate this statement, consider a rocket which is launched from a space station. Light is emitted
from the station at 300,000 km/s, or c. Regardless of the velocity of the rocket, an observer in the rocket
sees the flash of light pass her at the same speed c. If a flash is sent to the station from the rocket,
observers in the station will measure the speed of light to be c also. Thus, it could be inferred that all
observers who measure the velocity of light will find it to have the same value c. When you look at the
stars, you are actually looking backward in time. The farthest stars that you see in the sky are actually
the stars you may have seen long ago. Using the two postulates, Einstein was able to prove
mathematically that Newtonian laws are for objects at rest or moving at very low speeds. But when
speeds involved are comparable to that of light, as in the case of atomic particles, there are
corresponding changes in the physical properties.

ACTIVITY 2
Answer the following questions thoroughly.
1. What is an inertial frame of reference?
2. An accelerated frame is a non-inertial frame. Is this statement true? Explain.

ACTIVITY 3
Make your own example to each of the two postulates of relativity and make a justification/discussion
on the examples that you have formulated. Write this on a one whole sheet of paper.

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