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339 bytes added ,  01:38, September 3, 2009
→‎Special Relativity: more concise explanation of assumptions
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# The laws of physics are identical, without any variation, in every location throughout the universe.
 
# The laws of physics are identical, without any variation, in every location throughout the universe.
 
# The laws of physics are identical, without any variation, no matter how fast something is traveling (in the absence of acceleration).
 
# The laws of physics are identical, without any variation, no matter how fast something is traveling (in the absence of acceleration).
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Or, in more concise terms, the assumptions underlying the Theory of relativity are these:
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#there is no [[action at a distance]] (because that would make observations dependent on the frame of reference)
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#space and time are completely symmetric throughout the universe (because otherwise frames of reference would not be interchangeable)
    
Special Relativity (SR) was initially developed by [[Henri Poincaré]] and [[Hendrik Lorentz]], working on problems in electrodynamics and the [[Michelson-Morley experiment]], which had not found any sign of [[aether (science)|luminiferous aether]], which was believed to be the substance which carried electromagnetic waves. Special relativity alters [[Isaac Newton]]'s laws of motion by assuming that the speed of light will be the same for all observers, despite their relative velocities and the source of the light. (Therefore, if A sends a beam of light to B, and both measure the speed, it will be the same for both, no matter what the relative velocity of A and B. In Newtonian/Galilean mechanics, If A sends a physical object at a particular velocity towards B, and nothing slows it, the velocity of the object relative to B depends on the velocities of the object and of B relative to A.)
 
Special Relativity (SR) was initially developed by [[Henri Poincaré]] and [[Hendrik Lorentz]], working on problems in electrodynamics and the [[Michelson-Morley experiment]], which had not found any sign of [[aether (science)|luminiferous aether]], which was believed to be the substance which carried electromagnetic waves. Special relativity alters [[Isaac Newton]]'s laws of motion by assuming that the speed of light will be the same for all observers, despite their relative velocities and the source of the light. (Therefore, if A sends a beam of light to B, and both measure the speed, it will be the same for both, no matter what the relative velocity of A and B. In Newtonian/Galilean mechanics, If A sends a physical object at a particular velocity towards B, and nothing slows it, the velocity of the object relative to B depends on the velocities of the object and of B relative to A.)
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