Syllabus
Postulates of STR and some of their consequences. The principle of relativity in classical physics.
Galilei transformation. Ether theory.
Experiments leading to STR. (Fizeau, Hoek, Michelson, Kennedy a Thorndike). Relativistic kinematics: Lorentz transformation, length contraction, time dilatation, relativity of simultaneity, transformation of velocity. (Im)possibility of superluminal velocities and causality. "Paradoxes" of relativistic kinematics.
Experiments testing relativistic kinematics. Applications.
Relativistic dynamics: mass, rest mass, momentum, energy, mass-energy equivalence. Relativistic equation of motion of a mass particle.
Collisions. Particle in aelectric and magnetic field.
Maxwell equations and Lorentz transformation. Doppler effect.
Optical appearance of relativistic objects. Apparent superluminal velocities of quasars.
Minkowski spacetime. Spacetime diagrams.
Worldlines, hypersurfaces, light cones. Interval.
General Lorentz transformation. Main idea of 4-dimensonal formalism of STR.
Annotation
The lecture should give a "university-level view over the high-school level explanation" of the special theory of relativity. It covers: features of space and time, the road to special relativity, relativistic kinematics and dynamics, some optical phenomena, Minkowski space-time, four-dimensional formalism.