![]() ![]() Lorentz did not know, however, why this effect had occurred, so these were just ad hoc mathematical descriptions. The equation is also given for the addition of velocities ( v). The form of the equations is for the x coordinate, and time ( t). Lorentz to account for the anomaly of the Michelson-Morley experiment in 1881, where the velocity of light had not varied regardless of the direction in which it was measured. ![]() These are the "Lorentz Transformations," proposed prior to Einstein by the Dutch physicst H.A. The original formulae for the transformation of coordinates, from one frame of reference moving past another in the x axis are at left. So Einstein's perhaps most famous discovery is an artifact of the velocity of light as a constant. What does this all mean? Well, it means E = mc 2. If you could reach the velocity of light, all energy would go directly to mass, which thus could become infinite. Without that energy for acceleration, the force that causes your acceleration attenuates. The energy does not become nothing and the mass does not increase from nothing. So we must accept that the energy drains away into the mass that you notice has been increasing. How can that be? Well, since there is Conservation of Energy, the energy cannot just become nothing. But the energy accomplishes less as acceleration declines towards zero. Velocity is kinetic energy and the power you use to accelerate towards the velocity of light means that you are expending energy, much of which goes into the higher velocity that you achieve. So if your mass approaches infinity while your velocity approaches the velocity of light, where does the mass come from? Well, notice that as you approach the velocity of light, your acceleration begins to slow down. The Conservation of Mass means that mass cannot just come out nothing (except with transient quantum effects). Another science fiction story speculates that a ship hitting the velocity of light would be bounced back into the past.Īs it happens we must ask where the mass comes from. This circumstance is not always appreciated, even by great science fiction writers like Robert Heinlein, who has one character in a story ask why we can't go faster than the velocity of light and the answer is given that "we don't know" but "we'll see when we get there". The change in mass itself explains why ordinary objects cannot attain the velocity of light: They would have an infinite mass there and so would need an infinite force to accelerate themselves to that velocity. Maxwell's Equations, and so the velocity of light, are equally valid for every inertial frame of reference (the original "Galilean" form of Relativity), which means however it is that one is moving, as long as one is moving at a constant velocity (which means the same speed and direction), the velocity of light (in a vacuum) will be a constant. In Einstein's view, this simply preserves the absolute universality of the laws of nature, since the velocity of light turns out to be an artifact of Maxwell's Equations for electromagnetic interactions. ![]() These distortions occur so that the velocity of light will always appear to be a constant (c), regardless of relative motions and one's own inertial frame of reference (i.e. At the velocity of light, time would stand still, length in the direction of motion would shrink to zero, and mass would become infinite. Thus, as an object moves faster, time (t) passes more slowly for it, its length in the direction of motion ( l) shrinks, and its mass (m) increases. The bizarre effects of Special Relativity, introduced by Albert Einstein in 1905, are manifest as time dilation, length contraction, and varying mass. Relativity and the Separation Formula Relativity and the Separation Formula ![]()
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