Senior High School

Physical Science
Quarter 4 - Module 6

Relativity and the Big Bang

 What I Need To Know
This module is designed to deepen your knowledge about Relativity and the Big
Bang.

Specifically, after going through this module, you are expected to:

Explain how special relativity resolved the conflict between Newtonian mechanics and Maxwell’s
electromagnetic theory; (S11/12PS-IVi-j-69)

Physical Science Q4
Module 6 Lesson 1 Relativity and the Big Bang

What’s In
In the past lesson, you learned the relationship of electricity and magnetism.
Electricity can affect magnetism, and magnets can produce electricity.

What’s New
In this lesson, you will learn about the Relativity and the Big Bang. As we know,
Special relativity has consequences beyond everyday experience that leads to the question;
How do the postulates of relativity explain the behavior of matter moving at a speed
approaching the speed of light?

The words listed below are related to our new lesson. Find them in the puzzle then circle
them. Words may appear straight across, backward, up, and down.
Velocity Einstein’s Newtonian Hubble’s Law light
Relativity black hole mechanics speed doppler effect

E W D O P P L E R E F F E C T
I B A Q A P T Q W R T U G J K
N O L I G H T R T U K N M S W
S L H A R N I O H A X V G M T
T J K W C G M E C H A N I C S
E K M S H K M A S D F G H J K
I M O X K F H Z X C V B N M H
N H P V V E L O C I T Y Q E R
S R T B H U B B L E S L A W O
D W Y M L Y M A D E P E G H K
H R U G O J H T Y J E B F H T
N E W T O N I A N M E C H A Q
M Y K T R O W V B M D T Y O P
I R E L A T I V I T Y F H K L
P U M Y Y L L A D H Y U I P M
 What is It

Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity. The

treatment is non-mathematical, except for a brief use
of Pythagoras' theorem about right triangles. We
concentrate on the implications of the theory. The
document is based on a discussion of the theory for an
upper-year liberal arts course in Physics without
mathematics; in the context of that course the material
here takes about 4 or 5 one-hour classes.

Einstein published this theory in 1905. The

word special here means that we restrict ourselves to
observers in uniform relative motion. This is as
opposed the his General Theory of Relativity of 1916;
this theory considers observers in any state of uniform
motion including relative acceleration. It turns out that the general theory is also a theory of
gravitation.

Sometimes one hears that the Special Theory of Relativity says that all motion is relative. This is
not quite true. Galileo and Newton had a similar conception. Crucial to Newton's thinking is that
there is an absolute space, independent of the things in that space:

"Absolute space, in its own nature, without relation to anything external, remains always similar
and immovable. Relative space is some movable dimension or measure of the absolute spaces;
which our senses determine by its position to bodies .. because the parts of space cannot be
seen, or distinguished from one another by our senses, there in their stead we use sensible [i.e.
perceptible by the sense] measures of them ... but in philosophical disquisition, we ought to
abstract from our senses, and consider things themselves, distinct from what are only sensible
measures of them." -- Principia I, Motte trans.

For Newton, the laws of physics, such as the principle of inertia, are true in any frame of
reference either at rest relative to absolute space or in uniform motion in a straight line relative
to absolute space. Such reference frames are called inertial. Notice there is a bit of a circular
argument here: the laws of physics are true in inertial frames, and inertial frames are ones in
which the laws of physics are true.

In any case, from the standpoint of any such inertial frame of reference all motion can be
described as being relative. If you are standing by the highway watching a bus go by you at 100
km/hr, then relative to somebody on the bus you are traveling in the opposite direction at 100
km/hr.

This principle, called Galilean relativity, is kept in Einstein's Theory of Relativity.

Many of the consequences of the Special Theory of Relativity are counter-intuitive and
violate common sense. Einstein correctly defined common sense as those prejudices that we
acquire at an early age.

EXPLORING THE CONSEQUENCES OF EINSTEIN'S "EXPLANATION"

Here we will begin to see why Einstein's statement about the constancy of the speed of light
leads to all of the strange consequences such as time dilation, length contraction, etc. But first
we should take a few moments to carefully explore just what we mean when we say
some event occurred at some particular place at some particular time

We imagine a lattice of meter sticks, such as shown to the right, and at each intersection we
place a clock. This lattice represents an inertial frame of reference, and we imagine that we are
at rest relative to the lattice.
We synchronize the clocks to the "Reference Clock." To do this correctly requires taking into
account that if we are standing by one of the clocks looking at the Reference Clock, the time
that we see on the Reference is not the current time, but is the time it was reading when the
light we see left the clock. Thus we have to account for the small but finite time it takes light to
travel from the Reference Clock to us standing beside another clock. A bit tedious, but fairly
straightforward.

We imagine some event occurs. We define its position by where it happened relative to the
lattice of meter sticks and we define the time when it happened as the time read by the nearest
clock.

Of course, in practice nobody ever does this sort of thing.

Usually we don't bother to draw the whole lattice, but rather represent it by a set of coordinate
axes, x and y, and a single clock measuring time t, as shown below. We have also put an
observer, whom we shall name Lou, at rest in his coordinate system.

Next we imagine that Lou has a light bulb at the "origin" of his coordinate system. At some
time t which we shall call zero he turns on the light. The light moves away from the light bulb at
1,079,253,000 km/hr as measured by Lou's system of rods and clocks. At some time t later the
light will form a sphere with the light bulb right at the center.

There are two animations of this situation. One is a "simple" animated gif with a file size of 22k;
it may be accessed by clicking here. The other is a Flash animation with a file size of 16k; it may
be accessed by clicking here.

Now, Lou has a twin sister Sue, whom we shall assume was born at the same time as Lou (a
biological impossibility). Sue has her own lattice of meter sticks and clocks and she is at rest
relative to them. Just as for Lou, we represent Sue's rods and clocks as shown below.
Sue is an astronaut, and is in her rocket ship which is traveling at one-half the speed of light to
the right relative to Lou. Of course, relative to Sue, Lou is travelling at half the speed of light to
the left.

Let us imagine that Sue, traveling at half the speed of light relative to Lou, goes by Lou and he
turned on the light bulb just at the moment that Sue passed by it. Sue will call this time zero as
measured by her clocks.

Relative to Sue, the light bulb is traveling to the left at half the speed of light. However, because
of Einstein's "explanation", the speed of light relative to her is exactly 1,079,253,000 km/hr.
Thus, at some later time she will measure that the outer edge of the light forms a perfect sphere
with her at the middle.

There are both a animated gif and Flash animation of the above. To access the 18k gif
animation click here. To access the 18k Flash animation click here.

There is also a Flash animation of both Sue and Lou. To access the 22k animation click here.

If we think about the above a moment, it is clear that something weird is going on. Lou claims
that the light forms a sphere with the light bulb at the center. Sue claims the light forms a sphere
with her at the center. But except for the moment when the light bulb was first turned on, the
light bulb and Sue are at nowhere near the same place. Evidently the position and time of the
outer edge of the sphere as measured by Lou's system of rods and clocks and as measured by
Sue's system of rods and clocks are not as our common sense would predict.

Note that the only assumption we have made here is the constancy of the speed of light. Thus,
to avoid this sort of weirdness one must come up with another explanation of the null result of
the Michelson-Morley experiment.
We shall close this section by being slightly mathematical. The
only mathematics that we shall use is Pythagoras' Theorem for
right triangles.

This theorem says that for any right triangle such as the one
shown to the right:

x2 + y2 = h2

Now, when Lou measures the position of the outer edge of the sphere of light he can use
Pythagoras' Theorem to calculate the radius r of the sphere:

x2Lou + y2Lou = r2Lou

But the radius at time t is just the speed of the light, c, times the time:

rLou = c tLou

So:

x2Lou + y2Lou = (c t)2Lou

Notice that we don't need to label c as being the speed of light relative to Lou, since it is the
same number for all observers, including Sue.

Now, Sue measures the position of the outer edge of the sphere of light with her rods and
clocks and will conclude that:

x2Sue + y2Sue = (c t)2Sue

I will write the relations for Sue and Lou in a form which will be useful later:

x2Lou + y2Lou - (c t)2Lou = 0 = x2Sue + y2Sue - (c t)2Sue

These four equations are known as the Galilean coordinate transformations. To get the
corresponding speed transformations, divide the first three equations by time.
 Is General Relativity’s Standard hot “Big Bang” model true, where space came into being from
a nothing-point called a singularity? Does General Relativity get the early history of our Universe
right?
Our Universe is essentially same in all directions and in all locations. That means a
straightforward derivation from Einstein’s gravity equations to our spacetime will inevitably yield
the “Big Bang” model of our Universe. Most broadly, >“The Big Bang model describes a
universe that is dynamic and evolving, one that started from an extremely hot and dense state
at a finite time in the past.
Most scientists now believe that we live in a finite expanding universe which has not existed
forever, and that all the matter, energy and space in the universe was once squeezed into an
infinitesimally small volume, which erupted in a cataclysmic "explosion" which has become
known as the Big Bang.

Thus, space, time, energy and matter all came into being at an infinitely dense, infinitely
hot gravitational singularity, and began expanding everywhere at once. Current best estimates
are that this occurred some 13.7 billion years ago, although you may sometimes see estimates of
anywhere between 11 and 18 billion years.

The Big Bang is usually considered to be a theory of the birth of the universe, although
technically it does not exactly describe the origin of the universe, but rather attempts to explain
how the universe developed from a very tiny, dense state into what it is today. It is just a model to
convey what happened and not a description of an actual explosion, and the Big Bang was
neither Big (in the beginning the universe was incomparably smaller than the size of a
single proton), nor a Bang (it was more of a snap or a sudden inflation).
In fact, "explosion" is really just an often-used analogy and is
slightly misleading in that it conveys the image that the Big
Bang was triggered in some way at some particular center. In
reality, however, the same pattern of expansion would be
observed from anywhere in the universe, so there is no (Click for a larger version)
particular location in our present universe which could claim The Big Bang and the
to be the origin. expansion of the universe
(Original Source N/A:
hetdex.org/dark_energy/index.
It really describes a very rapid expansion or stretching of
php)
space itself rather than an explosion in pre-existing space.
Perhaps a better analogy sometimes used to describe the
even expansion of galaxies throughout the universe is that of raisins baked in a cake becoming
more distant from each other as the cake rises and expands, or alternatively of a balloon
inflating.

Neither does it attempt to explain what initiated the creation of the universe, or what came before
the Big Bang, or even what lies outside the universe. All of this is generally considered to be
outside the remit of physics, and more the concern of philosophy. Given that time and space as
we understand it began with the Big Bang, the phase "before the Big Bang" is as meaningless as
"north of the North Pole".

Therefore, to those who claim that the very idea of a Big

Bang violates the First Law of Thermodynamics (also known
as the Law of Conservation of Energy)
that matter and energy cannot be created or destroyed,
proponents respond that the Big Bang does not address the
creation of the universe, only its evolution, and that, as the
laws of science break down anyway as we approach the
creation of the universe, there is no reason to believe that
the First Law of Thermodynamics would apply.

The Second Law of Thermodynamics, on the other hand,

lends theoretical (albeit inconclusive) support to the idea of a
finite universe originating in a Big Bang type event. If disorder (Click for larger version)
and entropy in the universe as a whole is constantly The cosmological principle is
increasing until it reaches thermodynamic equilibrium, as supported by pictures of
the Law suggests, then it follows that the universe cannot different parts of the universe
have existed forever, otherwise it would have reached its by the Hubble Space
equilibrium end state an infinite time ago, our Sun would Telescope
have exhausted its fuel reserves and died long ago, and the (Source: Hubble
constant cycle of death and rebirth of stars would have Site: http://hubblesite.org/new
ground to a halt after an eternity of dissipation of energy, scenter/
losses of material to black holes, etc. archive/releases/1996/01/)

The Big Bang model rests on two main theoretical pillars: the General Theory of Relativity (Albert
Einstein's generalization of Sir Isaac Newton's original theory of gravity) and the Cosmological
Principle (the assumption that the matter in the universe is uniformly distributed on the large
scales, that the universe is homogeneous and isotropic).

The Big Bang (a phrase coined, incidentally, by the English astronomer Fred Hoyle during a
1949 radio broadcast as a derisive description of a theory he disagreed with) is currently
considered by most scientists as by far the most likely scenario for the birth of the universe.
However, this has not always been the case, as the following discussion illustrates.

What’s More
 Study the pictures below then answer the questions that follow. Write your
answers on a separate sheet of paper.
 Figure 1: Shows the relativity of motion is the Galilean – Newtonian relativity,
which is valid when the velocities of the objects involved are much less than the speed
of light, and when the inertial reference frames are considered.

Questions:
1. Is this an inertial or non – inertial frame in figure 1? Why?
2. Is this an inertial or non – inertial frame in figure 2? Why?

What I Have Learned

Directions: Solve the following problems below: Write your answer/s on the separate sheet of
paper. Show your solutions:

1. A bystander notes that the coordinates of an incident are (10 m, 0 m, 0 m, 7.0 s). What
are the coordinates of this accident as seen by the reporter traveling at 6.0 m/s towards
the accident? Assume that at t = 0, the reporter and by bystander were at the same
position.

2. A bus is moving at 5.0 m/s when a passenger walks forward at 1.5 m /s relative to the
bus. How fast is this passenger moving as seen and measured by (a) a person waiting
at the bus stop and (b.) the driver of the bus?

What I Can Do
Answer the following question briefly.

What are the 8 Ways You Can See Einstein's Theory of Relativity in Real Life

References

 Philippine Normal Universiy. 2016. Teaching Guide for Senior High School Physical
Science. Quezon City: Commision on Higher Education.
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