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Historical Introduction

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The Special Theory of Relativity

Part of the book series: Undergraduate Lecture Notes in Physics ((ULNP))

Abstract

The history of the Theory of Relativity is a very interesting subject, which is discussed in detail in many texts. In this chapter, we will refer only to the main events that led to the establishment of the Special Theory. These events will be presented initially in a concise manner in chronological order, while the more important of them will be described in more detail in the rest of the chapter.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    With the exception of one experiment! D.C. Miller reported [Rev. Mod. Phys. 5, 203 (1933)] results of his experiments that lasted for a decade and showed a speed of the Earth relative to the aether equal to about 10 km/s. R.S. Shankland, S.W. McCuskey, F.C. Leone and G. Kuerty [“New analysis of the interferometric observations of Dayton C. Miller”, Rev. Mod. Phys. 27, 167 (1955)] showed that Miller’s results were due to statistical fluctuations and variations in local temperature and that his results actually agree with those of the other researchers.

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, School of Applied Mathematical and Physical Sciences, National Technical University of Athens, Athens, Greece

    Costas Christodoulides

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  1. Costas Christodoulides
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Christodoulides, C. (2016). Historical Introduction. In: The Special Theory of Relativity. Undergraduate Lecture Notes in Physics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25274-2_1

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