When I was studying physics in college, one of the early subjects was Einstein’s special relativity theory. The subject is called “relativity” because it explains the physics of objects moving relative to each other. It is “special” because it only applies to uniform relative motion, not motion induced by gravity, which is covered by “general” relativity, which Einstein described a decade later.
Special relativity replaced Galileo’s and Isaac Newton’s earlier theories, which were superb at explaining falling objects and orbiting planets, but had run into trouble explaining the properties of fast-moving electrons and light.
It is an early subject in the physics curriculum because as students, we were just learning the techniques of calculus and linear algebra; techniques that are helpful, but not required to understand special relativity. Most people are familiar with special relativity, and even if they don’t understand the details, they have heard “E=mc2”, one of the consequences of it. They may also have heard about time dilation, the effect of a moving clock slowing down relative to a stationary one.
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