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Special Relativity for non-scientists
By Brad Rodgers (P1930) on Thursday, March 2, 2000 - 05:39 pm:

Hi!

I am doing a report on special relativity for my english teacher. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what would help someone with little experience in physics understand special relativity? Also, do you know any good sites on special relativity?

Thanks in advance,

Brad.

By Simon Munday (Sjm78) on Saturday, March 4, 2000 - 07:55 pm:

Hi Brad,

There are lots of books about Special Relativity for the non-physicist. There's bound to be one in your local library, although I don't know about websites. I don't think that it would be hard to find one. I've read Einstein's own non-technical description, and it's OK, but there are better (and more modern) texts around.

The main point about SR is that it seems to contradict common sense. If I were writing about it for a non-physicist, I would spend most of the time working through the simple but revolutionary consequences of the theory's assumptions, e.g. relativity of simultaneity, addition of velocities, time dilation, Lorentz contraction and things like that. The classic example is of two observers, one in a moving train and the other observing from the track side, but you might like to use a more original scenario...

I guess the most important thing is that you make sure that the reader goes away convinced that their old ideas of what space and time are are inadequate to describe the real world. The details don't matter so much, especially if the reader is never actually going to do any physics themselves. And don't be too ambitious! Unless this is supposed to be a major project, you won't be able to get too far into the theory.

Good luck!

By Brad Rodgers (P1930) on Saturday, March 4, 2000 - 08:12 pm:

Thanks, I will take your advice on this. I think that this should really help.

Brad