Guest Guest Posted June 26, 2002 Share Posted June 26, 2002 Hi: The following statement was made in Clifford Pickover?s book TIME: A TRAVELER?S GUIDE: ------------------------------------------------------------- ??special relativity describes how objects move far away from massive objects like stars while the general theory of relativity is more powerful and capable of describing spaceships accelerating near stars and black holes.? ------------------------------------------------------------- Does special relativity say ANYTHING about how things move away from massive objects? I thought that was general relativity?s department. Thanks for any help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darby Posted June 27, 2002 Share Posted June 27, 2002 RTT, Don't confuse STR with GTR. Special Relativity deals with some specific ideas: 1. It defines the speed of light as being measured by all observers to be the same independent of their relative velocities; 2. All observers, independent of their relative velocities, will measure the laws of physics to be the same; 3. "Simultaneous events" is redefined in terms of the relative velocity of independent observers. STR generally deals with objects in uniform motion...not under accelleration...it ignores gravity. GTR is a definition of gravity and gravitational effects. Accelleration is one way to define gravity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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