Special theory of relativity. Basics

The beginning of its development the special theory of relativity was received in the beginning of the 20th century, namely in 1905. Its foundations were considered in the work of Einstein Albert "To the electrodynamics of moving bodies." With the help of this fundamental work, the scientist raised a number of questions that had no answers at that time. So, for example, he suggested that Maxwell's teaching does not fully correspond to reality. After all, the interaction according to the laws of electrodynamics between a conductor with a current and a magnet depends solely on the relativity of their motion. But then there is a contradiction with the established views that these two cases of influence on each other should be strictly delineated. On the basis of these conclusions he put forward the assumption that any coordinate systems that depend on the laws of mechanics, to the same extent, and sometimes even more, depend on optical and electrodynamic laws. This conclusion Einstein called "the principle of relativity."

The basic elements of the special theory of relativity became revolutionary assumptions, which laid the foundation for a completely new phase of the development of physical science. The scientist completely pushed aside the classical ideas about the absoluteness of time and space, and also the relativity of Galileo. He also took a step toward confirming, at the level of theory, the empirically proven Hertz finiteness of the speed of light. He laid the foundations for studying the independence of the speed and direction of motion of a light source.

Today, the special theory of relativity makes it possible to significantly accelerate the process of studying the universe. The doctrine developed by Albert Einstein allowed to eliminate many contradictions that arose in the beginning of the twentieth century in physics.

The main goal pursued by the special theory of relativity is to provide an installation The connection between space and time. This greatly simplifies the understanding of the whole world order, in particular, and in general. The postulates of the special theory of relativity allow us to understand many phenomena: the shortening of lengths and lengths during the movement of the body, the increase in mass with increasing speed (mass defect), the absence of a connection between different events occurring in an instant (if they pass in absolutely different points of space-time Continuum). All this he explains by the fact that the maximum speed of propagation of any signals in the universe does not exceed the speed of light in vacuum.

The special theory of relativity determines that the mass of a photon at rest is zero, which implies that any third-party observer will never be able to catch the photon at a superluminal velocity and be able to move further along with it. Hence, the speed of light is a magnitude of absolute and not amenable to surpass it.

Albert Einstein gave a new qualitative leap in the development of physical science throughout the world, and on a scale of the universe.