Which theories were most influential in developing Einsteins theories of relativity?

11/11/14
What are the General and Special Theories of Relativity?
In short Special relativity is theory of physics that links space and time, it is based on two postulates:
(1) that all laws of physics are invariant in all inertial frames of reference (viewpoints that are in
equilibrium/ non-accelerating) (2) the speed of light in a vacuum is the same for all observers. The
most important of these postulates is (2) for reasons I will now explain. (Sweeney, 2014, p. p819)
In classical mechanics (those put forward by Galileo and later Newton) there is the rule of addition of
velocities. This means if someone walking at 1m/s away from a standing observer and they roll a ball
at 1m/s away from them, according to the stationary observer the ball will be rolling away at 2m/s.
Similarly if someone is walking at 5m/s relative to the earth and someone else is walking in the same
direction at 3m/s, to the 3m/s moving observers the second person is only moving at 2m/s. So the
question is what happens if someone moving at 299,792,458m/s (the speed of light in a vaccum, also
known as c) shines a light? According to Einstein the light will continue to move away from them at c
(Cox & Forshaw, 2009, p. 39), defying Galileos addition of velocities. This has many implications for
the nature of reality, namely its effect on how we perceive space and time.

Fig. 1
Einstein had very simple ideas in explaining these effects. Throughout his career Einstein use
gedankenexperiments or thought-experiments. Schrdingers cat was based on a similar thought
experiment devised by Einstein using explosives (Sweeney, 2014, p. 812). Fig 1 helps demonstrate
one of the most important thought experiments Einstein used when developing Special relativity. A
train is moving along a track relative to a stationary observer at a train station. On the train is two
mirrors spaced distance L metres apart have a photon of light bouncing between them. To an
observer on the train the time it takes for the photon to travel the distance 2L would be 2L/c (Fig
1.a) provided the laws of physics are invariant, this time is therefore
nanoseconds (1/10
with 9 zeroes after it). However, as the train speeds by you on the platform, the distance the light
has travelled will not be 2L, but
where v is the velocity of the train as it passes by and
t is the time taken for the light to travel (Fig 1.b).
This means that the light has travelled further according to the person stationary on the platform
than the person on the train. Normally this would not be particularly ground-breaking as we would
assume the photon of light is travelling faster. However, if Einsteins postulate that the speed of light
is constant is correct, than a very interesting effect emerges. Instead of the light speeding up to the
person on the platform, time itself must slow down on the train relative to the stationary observer.
In the 1990s, scientists in the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS) at Brookhaven National
Laboratory, New York tested this effect (known as time dilation) by looking at the lifetime of a muon

Which theories were most influential in developing Einsteins theories of relativity? 11/11/14
(an elementary particle similar to an electron but of a much greater mass) which is normally only
survives for 2.2 mircoseconds (Cox & Forshaw, 2009). The muon was accelerated to 99.94% the
speed of light and sent round a 14m diameter ring. The muon was only expected to complete 15 laps
of the ring before it decayed, but in reality it managed 400 laps, extending its life by a factor of
approximately 29. It should also be noted that it is not only time which has now become a variable
quantity but space too from the point of view of the muon it still only lasts its 2.2 microseconds
but still completes 400 laps, meaning that the space around the track must shrink allowing the
distance to be covered in that time .
These new radical discoveries changed how the universe worked: no longer could space and time be
the immutable scenery in which reality took place but an ever changing place where only a single
velocity was constant. This is where postulate (1) comes in. The very best equations deal only with
things that are invariant and agreed upon by all viewers in the universe so we therefore need a way
of defining space and time that is agreed upon by all viewers no matter how they are moving relative
to each other to preserve the sanctity of cause and effect. Every event must now be defined in 4
dimensions, up-down, left-right, backward-forward and the new dimension time. But space is space
and time is time. The time it takes someone to run 100m cannot be defined in metres. Or can it?
Distance and time is linked through

with x being distance and t time so using some calibrating

speed time can be written as distance when multiplied by this velocity.

General relativity took much longer to develop. While Special relativity only applied to objects that
were moving a constant velocity, for the general theory Einstein wanted to see what happened for
accelerating bodies. Special relativity is simply General relativity in the case where the acceleration
of the object is 0 (Sweeney, 2014, p. 824). If a person is in a lift that is in free fall (accelerating
towards the Earth at approximately 9.81m/s2 or g) how would they know they are actually falling or
just floating in space? Similarly if someone were standing in the lift on the Earth and it is stationary,
how do they know they are stationary or accelerating in space at the same rate as g? The answer is
that accelerations due to gravity are from a curvature in space-time. Everything in the universe will
try to move in a straight line (these line are known as geodesics) through space-time, but as the
presence of mass causes a curvature these lines will bend round an object which in 3 dimensional
space manifests itself as a force. The only difference is that this force will affect things which also
have no mass such e.g. a photon. Since

, an object with no mass will not be accelerated no

matter what the force, but the curvature of spacetime will accelerate light so that it travels in a
slightly different direction. This was proved in 1919 when light was shown to bend around the sun
during a solar eclipse (Sweeney, 2014, p. 827). The effect of the bending could only normally be
notice with starlight that passed very close to the Sun, but this could not be detected normally as the
Suns own light would block it out. Quite simply Mass tells space time how to curve and space time
tell mass how to move. - " Charles Misner, Kip Thome, and John. A. Wheeler, Gravitation, (San
Francisco: Freeman, 1973).
While most of the effects of the theories of relativity are only detectable at extremely high velocities
or the presence of large masses, general relativity does have a very important day to day affect. GPS
is ran by using trilateration from geostationary satellites in orbit around the Earth. These satellites
communicate with GPS to lacet where a device is on the Earth. The signals broadcast by the satellites
are in fact a fraction lower than what they should be so that the Earths gravitational field increases

Which theories were most influential in developing Einsteins theories of relativity? 11/11/14
it as it approaches the Earth. This is dues to the fact that the light will accelerate but since light
cant go faster than c, its frequency increases instead. If this correction wasnt taken into account the
entire GPS system would fail in just under an hour.
The influence of Galileo
The time before Galileo was an odd one, where the views of the Greek philosopher Aristotle were
the norm. The Earth was the centre of the universe and the location of everything in the universe
could be described using coordinates relative to the Earth. This was known as absolute space. If
something existed its location could be found within the universe as we had one fixed reference
point that would never change the Earth. The way the world worked was also seen very
differently; heavier objects fell to the floor faster than lighter objects, everything had a natural
state which for object on the Earth was to remain at rest, so for an object to move it must
constantly have some sort of force or impulse applied to it. (Hawking, 2011, p. 17)
Galileo changed all this. He was a wide supporting of Copernicus Heliocentric theory. But Galileo did
more than that, he managed to draw conclusions from the seeming paradox of the Earth feeling like
it is stationary yet it must be orbiting the sun from the motion of the planets around it. There is
nothing in principle that will decide what is standing still and what is moving. From this he abolished
the absolute space and realised it was only necessary to talk about motion relative to something else
(Cox & Forshaw, 2009, p. 11). This is something that is obvious nowadays, now we know of the vast
scal of the galaxy we are in and the huge void between those galaxies, as where do you measure an
absolute space from? Natrally the answer would be the centre of the universe but observations by
Edwin Hubble and csomologists actually concluded every point of the universe is the centre of the
universe due to its infinitely small size.
Without this notion of relativistic physics then none of Einsteins postulates would be possible,
everyone would know if they were moving as all viewers would have the same universally absolute
reference point. This would mean light couldnt be an impossible speed to achieve as it would have
to be a speed relative to the point, ruining Einsteins train though experiment. The notion of
invariance also comes from this relativistic view of the universe, as anyone could argue they are
stationary provided they arent accelerating, meaning the laws of physics should hold true for them,
which is Einsteins main postulates on which relativity is based, with his addition of the speed of light
being universal.
Galileo also had an indirect impact on Einsteins work through Newton. Galileo laid down the ground
work for Forces and momentum as well his work on inertia and how everything accelerates towards
the Earth at the same speed (later to be known as the force of gravity) without Galileo Newton
wouldnt have developed classical mechanics, which at every day speeds and gravity (<0.1c)
relativity boils down to. (Sweeney, 2014, p. 827)
The Gravity of Newtons work
Newton is often regarded as the father of modern mathematics