100 Years of Special Relativity

phrotoma writes "Wikipedia notes in their Selected Anniversaries section that today marks the 100th anniversary of Albert Eintein's publication of the third of his four Annus Mirabilis Papers entitled On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies; the seminal work that introduced the concepts which would come to be known as Special Relativity. This event is also being commemorated in a UN endorsed celebration of physics: World Physics Year 2005 with talks and events at public schools, museums, and universities the world over."

Comments

Why we all thought of Time dilation immediately..

[Gopal.V]

> The first five posts are all riffs on the same theme -- dilation of time.

Say relativity is 100 years old and the immediate thing that pops into my mind is Twins Paradox.

In fact it is the most difficult part of relativity to get straight. Because relative velocity of light is always 'C' - and how ?. Well time and distance measurements change with the speed you move. Newton only said speed was relative - he always maintained that displacement and time were absolute. After all absolute time predisposes of a creator for this universe - time began with the creation. Otherwise what was God doing before ?.

Anyway, it's been nearly 150 years since Darwin proposed his theories - still the debate continues. At least in physics there seems to be less religion messing up with it.

> Does that say more about the level of education among Slashdotters, or about our lack of creativity, or both?

Education and a tendency to make clever inside jokes (imagine a bewoul..NO CARRIER). Anyone who has read about Aorist rods or about time travel was invented at the same time throughout history can appreciate that the joke is with the reader. The real point is that these jokes were modded up.