Return to my Physics pages
Go to my home page


Relativity 100

What is the most important fact in science? I think that it is the fact that d=vt (distance=velocity times time) does not hold absolutely. This is Einstein Special Relativity or Lorentz (accent on the first syllable) transformation. And it is basic to the weave of the universe.

d=vt is THE definition of velocity. It is basic to Physics. It cannot be simpler or more basic. But, Einstein and Lorenz (mainly Einstein) realized that it does not hold absolutely. And both of them won the Nobel Prize in Physics for this (Einstein won it for this and other ideas).

Look at the Nobel winning experiment by Michelson and Morley, in which the speed of light was measured to be the same in all directions (regardless of the motion of the earth through space). This violates d=vt, pure and simple (They did measure accurately enough to show that d=vt did not hold).

Think about it. You are measuring the velocity of a light beam, to see how its velocity seems to vary as your velocity varies. And you find that your velocity makes no difference. That is a simple violation of d=vt.

This means that either time varies from observer to observer, or distance varies from observer to observer. Well, it turns out that both vary. But, the basic observation is that d=vt does not hold absolutely.


Return to my Physics pages
Go to my home page