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| Fig. 15. Global positioning system, GPS satellites are among the few objects larger than sub-atomic particles that can sense relativistic time dilation. While they travel at much less than the speed of light, they do travel very swiftly and have extremely accurate clocks on them. |
Links and references
There are many, many sites on the web explaining relativity. Below I've listed the ones I happen to feel were particularly useful.
- Wikipedia on luminiferous aether.
- Wikipedia on the Michelson-Morley experiment.
- Wikipedia on special relativity.
- Book: A history of the theories of aether and electricity, vols I and II, Sir Edmund Whittaker, Dover Publications Inc, 1989 (orginally published by Thomas Nelson & Sons Ltd London in 1951 and 1953).
- Nice youtube animation of concepts from special relativity.
- The Lorentz transformation, part of the Mechanical Universe series produced in Caltech a few decades ago. These are a very well done series on physics and go into considerable depth in both the history and mathematics. They use all sorts of interesting and entertaining video images. Video clips 41 and 43.
- John S. Bell on the foundations of quantum mechanics. An article in this Google online book titled "How to teach special relativity" by J. S. Bell.
- Selected excerpts of the above article by Bell.
- A discussion of John Bell's article, listed above.
- Carl Sagan explaining special relativity. His physics is correct, but I disagree with a lot of his philosophical musings. In any case, the video clip is nicely done, entertaining, and does show many of the relativistic effects applied to everyday human life.
| Peter Ceperley, November 2010 |
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