The Law of Special Relativity

The accuracy of any measuring device is independent of the inertial frame it is stationed in and, in every inertial frame, all physical laws are the same.

The Law of The Constancy of the Speed of Light

In the vacuum light always travels in straight lines and always at the same speed, 2.99792458 × 108 meters/second, regardless of how its source moves through the inertial frame.

The primary consequences of these laws:

The same event occurs at different times and locations in different inertial frames. The Lorentz transformation, given below, replaces the Galilean transformations.

The Law of Equivalence

A frame of reference consisting of changing special relativistic inertial frames is a stationary frame of reference in a local gravitational field.

The Law of General Relativity

In every frame of reference, all physical laws are the same.

The primary consequences of these laws:

Space-time is curved and described by the field equations given below. Here, any vacuum energies is already included in the energy-momentum tensor Tpq and so no vacuum energy terms appear in these equations.

Copyright © 2001-2006 RL Gerl

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