The Postulates of Special Relativity
Einstein developed special relativity on the basis of two postulates:
- First postulate – Special principle of relativity – The laws of physics are the same in all inertial frames of reference. In other words, there are no privileged inertial frames of reference.
- Second postulate – Invariance of c – The speed of light in a vacuum is independent of the motion of the light source.
Special relativity can be derived from these postulates, as was done by Einstein in 1905. Einstein's postulates are still applicable in the modern theory but the origin of the postulates is more explicit. It was shown above how the existence of a universally constant velocity (the speed of light) is a consequence of modeling the universe as a particular four-dimensional space having certain specific properties. The principle of relativity is a result of Minkowski structure being preserved under Lorentz transformations, which are postulated to be the physical transformations of inertial reference frames.
Read more about this topic: Introduction To Special Relativity
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