Special Relativity

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These notes have three (perhaps ambitious) aims: (a) to introduce undergraduates to special relativity from its founding principle to its varied consequences, (b) to serve as a reference for those of us who need to use special relativity regularly but have no long-term memory, and (c) to provide an illustration of the methods of theoretical physics for which the elegance and simplicity of special relativity are ideally suited.

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Special Relativity David W. Hogg School of Natural Sciences Institute for Advanced Study Olden Lane Princeton NJ 08540 [email protected] 1 December 1997 Contents 1 Principles of relativity 1.1 What is a principle of relativity? . . . 1.2 Einstein’s principle of relativity . . . . 1.3 The Michelson-Morley experiment . . 1.4 The “specialness” of special relativity 2 Time dilation and length contraction 2.1 Time dilation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2 Observing time dilation . . . . . . . 2.3 Length contraction . . . . . . . . . . 2.4 Magnitude of the effects . . . . . . . 2.5 Experimental confirmation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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