Einstein's theory of relativity.

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Relativity

Einstein's theory of relativity has caught the imagination of the average person more than any other physical theory in history. Yet the theory of relativity, unlike many other results of physical science, is not easily understood by the average person. We can understand the relativity theory fully only by means of the mathematical formulas which make it up. Without mathematics, we can only state some of its basic ideas and quote, but not prove, some of its conclusions.

The relativity theory deals with the most fundamental ideas which we use to describe natural happenings. These ideas are time, space, mass, motion, and gravitation. The theory gives new meaning to the old ideas that these words represent. It is basically made up of two parts. One is the special, or restricted, relativity theory, published by Albert Einstein in 1905. The general relativity theory was put forward by Einstein in 1915.

Special theory of relativity

This theory is called the special relativity theory because it refers to a special kind of motion. This is uniform motion in a straight line, that is, with constant velocity. Suppose we are on a smoothly running railway