1. Scientific Theories and Laws
2. The First Decade (1936-1946)
4. The Second Decade (1946-1956)
6. The Third Decade (1956-1966)
8. The Fourth Decade (1966-1976)
10. The Fifth Decade (1976-1986)
12. The Sixth Decade (1986-1996)
14. The Seventh Decade (1996-2006)
15. The Theory of More than Everything
16. The Eighth Decade (2006-2016)
18. The Ninth Decade (2016-2026)
Appendix A Paintings
Appendix B TTOMTE and a Steady State Universe
Appendix C Musical Compositions
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Not everything is relative. Things we used to think were absolute (time, length, and mass) have become relative, but we have a new absolute, the speed of light. Once we accepted this concept, we needed to develop many new formulas. If you want more details about all this, I recommend The ABC of Relativity by Bertrand Russell and Martin Gardner's book, Relativity for the Million. These books include some simple formulas you can play around with to get the feel for Relativity. I'll only mention a few weird results from the math in the special theory.
1) Go back to our fantasy about our two spaceships passing each other. We said their ship flew at five thousand miles per hour relative to us. As we pass them, we and they both measure the speed of light from that distant star. They get 186,000 miles per second, and we get the same. We are getting closer to it, and they are going away. In fact, if we speed up to 180,000 miles per second towards the star, the light will still hit us at 186,000 miles per second. Our clocks must be running slower, the faster we go.
2) Here's another strange thing: If we try to measure the length of the passing ship, we'll get a different answer from their measurement of their own ship. If it were possible to see them, the people will look thinner than they should. They aren't really thinner, but it's only how our measurements of each other are affected; to them, we will look thinner. (The speed of light must somehow affect dating websites on the internet: People tend to be thinner online than when you meet them in person.)
3) Because light speed is an absolute, the formulas say the mass of the traveling object has to change. For a rocket trying to get to the speed of light relative to the rest of the universe, the rocket engines have to work harder and harder.
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