Einsteins relativity

[Zant]

I am writing a report on Einsteins theory of relativity and I am stuck. I need to name a few things that came out of the theory for the everyday man and science today.

 

I so far have GPS satellites(the recalculate for the time difference made from the gravity)

New energies that work like the sun(fusion) is maybe plausible in the future.(the calculations is based on Relativity theory)

 

But I wonder if you can help me at all I still need maybe 3-4 more but my teacher cant really find any so we agreed to ask here. Any help is greatly appreciated.

[timo]

Relativity is a basic ingredient of perhaps half of modern physics. As such, it is hard to pinpoint particular applications. I would imagine that none of our nuclear physics would work without relativity. You tend to have the kinetic energies where non-relativistic physics fails to properly describe particles, there. In this sense, you could probably add nuclear power generators and certain forms of tumor treatment to the list. However, note that the involvement of relativity may be much deeper in these cases (and hence less obvious), since it is a form of relativistic physics. In GPS clocks, you rather do a non-relavistic calculation and only add relativistic correction terms at the end (at least that's how I would imagine it). So there, the involvement of relativity is much less fundamental, and therefore easier to understand and pinpoint.

[swansont]

You named fusion, but there's also fission, which is present in nuclear reactors and atom bombs, to name two obvious applications.

 

In GPS clocks, you rather do a non-relavistic calculation and only add relativistic correction terms at the end (at least that's how I would imagine it). So there, the involvement of relativity is much less fundamental, and therefore easier to understand and pinpoint.

 

Even though the correction is only required to first order, (i.e. you can use v^2/2c^2 and gh/c^2, using local g) their very presence is relativistic.

[timo]

Even though the correction is only required to first order, (i.e. you can use v^2/2c^2 and gh/c^2, using local g) their very presence is relativistic.

I'm not sure what you are trying to say here. Relativistic corrections being caused by relativity seems a rather trivial statement to me. Am I wrong in saying that you essentially think in terms of non-relativistic physics and merely add a few correction terms at appropriate places in the calculation?

 

Let me try to reformulate my statement: When it comes to the timing of GPS signals, you (or at least the people working in the field) have an idea what the outcome would be if you performed a non-relativistic calculation. In e.g. particle physics, I wouldn't even really know how to perform a non-relativistic calculation in the first place, less could predict the differences to the relativistic calculations. Hence, there are probably applications(*) that are even more dependent on relativity than GPS (which I guess would merely become more inaccurate - possibly to the point that you'd rather navigate via stars) , but are less obvious because of that.

 

(*) particle physics admittedly is not exactly renowned for its wide range of applications - that's why I did chose the related nuclear physics in my previous post

[swansont]

I'm not sure what you are trying to say here. Relativistic corrections being caused by relativity seems a rather trivial statement to me. Am I wrong in saying that you essentially think in terms of non-relativistic physics and merely add a few correction terms at appropriate places in the calculation?

 

Let me try to reformulate my statement: When it comes to the timing of GPS signals, you (or at least the people working in the field) have an idea what the outcome would be if you performed a non-relativistic calculation. In e.g. particle physics, I wouldn't even really know how to perform a non-relativistic calculation in the first place, less could predict the differences to the relativistic calculations. Hence, there are probably applications(*) that are even more dependent on relativity than GPS (which I guess would merely become more inaccurate - possibly to the point that you'd rather navigate via stars) , but are less obvious because of that.

 

(*) particle physics admittedly is not exactly renowned for its wide range of applications - that's why I did chose the related nuclear physics in my previous post

 

OK, I see what you're getting at. There are parts of theory that depend on relativity from the ground up, for which there is no classical counterpart.

 

For clock corrections there are no relativistic corrections to be made for your own clocks, because you are in a local frame. You have to consider the corrections when doing synchronizations or syntonizations to remote clocks, though "remote" is about to be redefined as clocks reach the point where gravitational time dilation can trivially be measured for meter-scale height differences, which is not far off (it's been done as a cutting-edge experiment). The thing is, I would phrase these corrections as being more fundamental, since you can easily see what the effect of relativity is — it's very direct and not buried in other interactions. I guess it's how you view what "fundamental" is.

[mindless]

Zant, de Broglie produced the first derivation of Quantum Theory on the basis of relativity. So Quantum Theory is due to relativity. The idea of "spin" is due to Dirac's application of relativity to quantum theory and explains the chemistry of matter. Without relativity there would be no modern chemistry (drugs, advanced materials etc). Anti-particles are predicted from the application of relativity to quantum theory so PET Scanning is a relativistic application.

 

See

 

Relativity and chemistry: http://books.google....rbitals&f=false

 

De Broglie's QM Theory: http://www.google.co...aMFIF3Q&cad=rja

 

PET: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positron_emission_tomography

Edited May 4, 2012 by mindless

[Zant]

Zant, de Broglie produced the first derivation of Quantum Theory on the basis of relativity. So Quantum Theory is due to relativity. The idea of "spin" is due to Dirac's application of relativity to quantum theory and explains the chemistry of matter. Without relativity there would be no modern chemistry (drugs, advanced materials etc). Anti-particles are predicted from the application of relativity to quantum theory so PET Scanning is a relativistic application.

 

See

 

Relativity and chemistry: http://books.google....rbitals&f=false

 

De Broglie's QM Theory: http://www.google.co...aMFIF3Q&cad=rja

 

PET: http://en.wikipedia....sion_tomography

 

Wow that is really interesting I especially like Broglie that would work perfect for my report thank you so much.