Special Relativity Theory
According to SR, the vacuum speed of light is isotropically equal to a universal constant c in any coordinate systems. Inter alia, it leads to the fact that
- apart from Newtonian limit, velocities are not additive quantities, and
- the difference velocity between A and B is not equal to their relative velocity and particularly has a smaller absolute value. Whereas the maximum difference speed between two objects is 2c, the maximum absolute value of a relative velocity is equal to c.
To get from and in an arbitrary reference frame, it's necessary to Lorentz transformation the latter into the rest frame of A. If and are collinear, the formula
holds.
Read more about this topic: Relative Velocity
Famous quotes containing the words special, relativity and/or theory:
“We agree fully that the mother and unborn child demand special consideration. But so does the soldier and the man maimed in industry. Industrial conditions that are suitable for a stalwart, young, unmarried woman are certainly not equally suitable to the pregnant woman or the mother of young children. Yet “welfare” laws apply to all women alike. Such blanket legislation is as absurd as fixing industrial conditions for men on a basis of their all being wounded soldiers would be.”
—National Woman’s Party, quoted in Everyone Was Brave. As, ch. 8, by William L. O’Neill (1969)
“By an application of the theory of relativity to the taste of readers, to-day in Germany I am called a German man of science, and in England I am represented as a Swiss Jew. If I come to be regarded as a bête noire the descriptions will be reversed, and I shall become a Swiss Jew for the Germans and a German man of science for the English!”
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955)
“Frankly, these days, without a theory to go with it, I can’t see a painting.”
—Tom Wolfe (b. 1931)