How Special Relativity Works
by John Zavisa    

If you are a fan of science fiction, then you know that "relativity" is a fairly common part of the genre. For example, people on Star Trek are always talking about the space-time continuum, worm holes, time dilations and all sorts of other things that are based on the principle of relativity in one way or another. If you are a fan of science you know that relativity plays a big part there as well, especially when talking about things like black holes and astrophysics.

If you have ever wanted to understand the fundamentals of relativity, then this edition of How Stuff Works will be incredibly interesting to you. In this edition the major principles of the theory are discussed in an accessible way so that you can understand the lingo and the theories involved. Once you understand these concepts, you will find that scientific news articles and science fiction stories are much more interesting! The links section offers three additional sources of information that you can tap into if you want to learn more.

Go to the next article or pick from the table of contents:

• Introduction to How Special Relativity Works You are here
• 1.0 - The Fundamental Properties of the Universe
• 2.0 - Special Relativity
• 3.0 - Fun with the Special Theory of Relativity
• Conclusion

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