Understanding Special Relativity (without the maths)

Special Relativity Without the Maths (or How to Fit a Metre Stick into a Matchbox)

You might think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s. You might even have noticed the faster you run, the quicker you get there. Have you ever noticed the faster you run, the closer the chemist gets? No? Maybe you need to run faster.

Ask a goldfish about the curvature of the earth, or a sloth’s opinion on the national speed limit and you hit the same problem as discussing relativity with humans – they just don’t understand the question. If goldfish holidayed in Marbella, or sloths commuted down the M6, the conversations might go differently. You don’t need a degree in maths to understand special relativity, you just need to live like James Dean; faster. Special relativity kicks in at really high speeds – really high. If children ran around a hundred million times more quickly, two things would change. Parents would be even more exhausted, and children in primary school would be taught special relativity the moment they learned speed, distance and time and they would understand it.

This is that lesson.

Kieron Nixon

Kieron studied Astrophysics and Maths, then worked in schools and colleges until moving to higher education in 2019. He is now a lecturer in Foundation Year Physics at Keele University and helps people get onto degrees in physics, astrophysics and engineering. He is Director of the Blended Foundation Year Programme which offers mature students or those with barriers to higher education a more flexible way to study on the foundation year. He is also the editor and author of A level Physics Factsheets for Curriculum Press.