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Unit 7: Astrophysics Page 46

I added energy to the system, aesthetics, morality, and other

which was stored in the humanistic areas. But is that what
electromagnetic forces inside the Einstein really meant? Is
rubber band, which add to the everything really relative?
mass of the object (albeit very
The happy answer is no. And you
slightly).
already know this – the laws of

Another Reason We Can’t physics are not relative. They are
the same for everyone. The speed
Go Faster Than Light
of light isn’t relative – it’s the same
2
E=mc gives us another way to
for everyone, period.
realize how nothing can go faster
than the speed of light. And although observers differ on
the intervals of time and space
A bowling ball is harder to get
between two events, they do agree
rolling than a ping pong ball
on certain aspects (we’ll get to this
because it has more inertia, more
when we talk about spacetime).
resistance to motion (we covered

this in Unit 1). General Relativity Myths &
Mistakes
The more massive an object, the
more inertia it will have, and the One of the biggest mistakes made
more energy it will take to in science textbooks (especially in
accelerate it. children’s books) is the idea that
there is no gravity in space.
The inertia increases as the
object’s speed approaches c, so it You’ll often see a picture of an
takes an infinite amount of force astronaut “floating” right next to
and thus infinite amount of energy the words: “Why does this
to accelerate an object to c. And astronaut float in space? Because
that is impossible. there’s no gravity in space.”

Common Myths about
Special Relativity

“Everything’s relative…” Have you
hear this before? Since Einstein
published his work over a century
ago, people from all over the board
have applied it to their area of

interest, including philosophy,

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