This experiment led, ten years later, to the
special theory of relativity. What is interesting is that in his "Autobiographical Notes" Einstein describes the thought experiment as something that he "had already hit upon at the age of sixteen."(47) Perhaps his use of the word "hit" denotes the suddenness of this realization, occurring in a burst of thought.
It was 1907, two years after his
special theory of relativity had rewritten textbook notions about time and motion.
It took well over 8 years of one of mankind's greatest intellectual (philosophical, physical, mathematical) struggles towards synthesis in history for the greatly isolated, independent, original, and visionary young scientific creator--Albert Einstein--to complete the task since 1907 when he first attempted the logical extension of the
Special Theory of Relativity (born in 1905) to include gravitation and more general reference frames under the umbrella of differential geometry and general covariance (first with the help of Einstein's friend, Marcel Grossmann, who helped select and qualify Riemannian geometry for Einstein's new physics program, and also of Tulio Levi-Civita and Hermann Weyl upon the later publication of the final form of General Relativity).
It's worth adding that Essen argued vehemently against the idea of absolute light speed, put forth in Albert Einstein's
special theory of relativity. If the speed of light is absolute, time is relative.
That idea was dismissed more than 100 years ago with the creation of Einstein's
special theory of relativity.
Knowledge of the basics of non-relativistic quantum mechanics and the
special theory of relativity is assumed.
Einstein, born on March 14, 1879, to Jewish parents in Germany, developed the
Special Theory of Relativity, which describes the motion of particles moving close to the speed of light.
With the conceptual stage set, Bourne moves to a challenge posed by the
special theory of relativity (STR) in Chapter 6.
According to Einstein's
special theory of relativity, it would take an infinite amount of energy to accelerate an object through the light barrier.
(12.) Einstein, Albert, The Meaning of Relativity (London: Routledge, 2003); see also David Bohm's interpretation of relativity in his The
Special Theory of Relativity, reprinted (London: Routledge, 2002).
Einstein's
special theory of relativity and time dilation were called into question.
Coordinate space and time are not absolute, and the simultaneity of events is observer-dependent, but the speed of light is invariant (the
special theory of relativity).