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:
“People generally will soon understand that writers should be judged, not according to rules and species, which are contrary to nature and art, but according to the immutable principles of the art of composition, and the special laws of their individual temperaments.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)
“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)
“A theory of the middle class: that it is not to be determined by its financial situation but rather by its relation to government. That is, one could shade down from an actual ruling or governing class to a class hopelessly out of relation to government, thinking of gov’t as beyond its control, of itself as wholly controlled by gov’t. Somewhere in between and in gradations is the group that has the sense that gov’t exists for it, and shapes its consciousness accordingly.”
—Lionel Trilling (1905–1975)