A delightful quirk of relativity theory
twitter.com
A delightful quirk of relativity theory
1–10 of 232 posts
Re: A delightful quirk of relativity theory
#2Summary: For small angles, approximation makes it look like gradients (y/x) add simply (a+b). Similarly low velocity in relativity world makes it look like velocities just add as well. With some insight we discover how it really works, including how the approximation makes it look correct for small values.
Re: A delightful quirk of relativity theory
#3Related minute physics videos:
The whole intro to relativity series is worth a watch.
Re: A delightful quirk of relativity theory
#4I love the name of the scientist Al Unapietra. The thing is very well explained, but it's very sad to see it as a twitter thread, which is a mostly unreadable format.
Re: A delightful quirk of relativity theory
#5I might have missed it, but is there (or do we know of) a different model for which the velocities actually add? Essentially, how do we go from slopes to angles here?
Re: A delightful quirk of relativity theory
#6[dead]
Re: A delightful quirk of relativity theory
#7More readable formatting: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1482811504424542211.html
Re: A delightful quirk of relativity theory
#8Lovely explanation. Builds up from simple angles and suddenly makes what seemed weird in relativity actually kind of obvious.
I particularly like how the model you choose to describe things can make the same phenomenon easy or hard to understand.
Re: A delightful quirk of relativity theory
#9I might have missed it, but is there (or do we know of) a different model for which the velocities actually add? Essentially, how do we go from slopes to angles here?
In classical Newtonian mechanics, velocities add normally a+b = c (an approximation which works near perfect for almost all velocities humans interact with). I think you might be asking a different question, though, but I'm not sure what.
Re: A delightful quirk of relativity theory
#10I love the name of the scientist Al Unapietra. The thing is very well explained, but it's very sad to see it as a twitter thread, which is a mostly unreadable format.
Twitter threads are in general a very sad successor of the blogosphere.