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Introduction
This chapter deals with the kinematic parts of the theory of special relativity introduced by Einstein in 1905. As we will see, the theory has revolutionised our traditional concepts of space and time; it leads to unexpected phenomena such as length contraction and time dilation, and it introduces the speed of light as the ultimate limiting speed for all material objects.
We will discuss the two main effects of the theory of relativityâtime dilation and length contraction â and will see how muon decay experiments provided the early experimental support for the theory.
We also introduce a pictorial representation of relativistic phenomena that makes the concepts of time dilation, length contraction and simultaneity particularly transparent.