the special theory of relativity

As the theory of special relativity is a revised edition of Galileo’s theory of relativity however it consists of some mind boggling facts which were get unnoticed before Einstein. And if we talk about its name which is ‘Special’ relativity so this is just because it applies to a special case. A case in which gravitation too do not play a significant role.

One of the example from is relativity depends upon the fame of references because relativity is all about the relatedness of inertial and non inertial frame of references. So first of all what is frame of references the question arises, so this question can be answered in the name of Sir Isaac Newton who says that the all the frames of references for which his own laws of motion holds good are said to be inertial frame of reference. And from ‘good’ I mean to say valid all the frames that do not disturb the laws of Newton or the laws of motion are said to be inertial and rest of are non inertial. The basic distinction and relation between these frames can be sought out in the name of relativity. Einstein always used to say that there is nothing is at complete rest and complete motion. As if we take a example of a man who is at rest in the frame of his own and of his friend who his sitting just before him in a train now if somebody standing on the platform and saw the train he may find everyone in motion and moving with such a speed with which the train is moving       

Miraculous year of Einstein

In 1905 when Einstein published his first paper on photoelectric effect he was so excited to get famous by his extreme important work for physics. However he didn’t get any attention and this really didn’t meant that nobody read his paper; he published his in the science generals of that time where professor Max Planck read that paper on the advice of his assistant. And he really got impressed with the paper but he didn’t call Einstein for his work. This made Einstein quite aggressive and decided to write another paper which too get unappreciated by the scientific community. He wrote total three papers which hadn’t got any positive response, so finally decide to write any another paper which was based upon the theory of relativity. Many of us posses a confusion that Einstein first develop the principle of the theory of relativity but this is not true the real theory of relativity was first developed by Galileo Galilee. Einstein in 1905 wrote a striking paper on the revised and modified edition of relativity and named it as theory of special relativity. Where he proposed two basic laws that:-

1) Nothing can travel faster than light

2) All the laws of physics are same for every inertial frame of reference for each and every point in space  

The Solution

The solution to the problem of the photoelectric effect wasn’t easy to find. The classical picture in the mind of physicist didn’t tend to explain the effect and the required something new which can explain the quantum phenomenon. Then after a lot of precise calculation Max Planck was able to find out the energy required by a single electron to eject. And he explained that the energy required for a single electron to eject can be directly proportional to the wavelength of the light which is trying to eject the electrons and it is obvious that we had to apply proportionality constant which he named to his own name as Planck’s constant.

This thing led Einstein to think more; he got a brilliant idea to explain the photoelectric effect in good and very simple way. So he decided to write a paper to Max Planck. That paper was his first paper in the year 1905 however the paper of his wasn’t get appreciated by anyone except his wife. He explained the effect very beautifully, he made some new rules to the effect that a particular wavelength is only required for the ejection of the electrons. He explain it as that the energy of Planck if greater than that the energy that is required to the ejection can be act as the Kinetic energy of those electrons.

            

The Irony

The well known physicist, ‘Albert Einstein’ always used to say “A single piece of paper cannot decide your future.” This quote has now become one the most used ‘motivational’ quote. This motivates one who is a student; this quote says that a paper in which you scored less marks is of no use for your future because your future depends upon your own knowledge and thinking which you posses in your mind. So this a simple saying but the beautiful irony in the statement is that a single piece of paper of Einstein on Photoelectric effect in 1905 really change the future of both Einstein and Quantum physics. His explanations to the photoelectric effect is a bench mark in the growth of quantum mechanics

So diverting the mind from motivation to the Science can be a great thing so here it is.

The Photoelectric effect is one of those beautiful experiment ever performed for perplexing ideas. Actually it consist of a metal surface on which a light beam incidents, it was then observed that the metal after then immediately start emitting photo electrons. But the important point is that it does not emit photo electrons for each and every sort of light I mean every sort of wavelength a particular wavelength is required for a particular metal which really puzzled scientists. According to the classical picture a single wavelength can eject electrons if kept for a long time but unfortunately or I should say fortunately this was not the case