Nov 21, 2025 04:11 AM
SABINE HOSSENFELDER
https://youtu.be/2IwZB9PdJVw
VIDEO EXCERPT: Einstein’s theory of special relativity makes two most remarkable predictions. The first is time dilation, the other one is length contraction. Time dilation means that if an object moves faster than its internal time passes slower. Length contraction means that the same fast-moving object will also be shorter. It’s not that it appears shorter, it actually is shorter.
In the decades after Einstein put forward is theories of space and time, physicists continued to question that it was correct. In 1931, a group of scientists went so far as to publish a book called “100 authors against Einstein.” It’s an interesting historical summary of why people rejected Einstein’s insights, more than 2 decades after he had put them forward.
Some of them claimed Einstein’s maths is wrong. Some said the maths is right, but they did it earlier. The most frequent objection though was that they thought Einstein’s theory is merely a philosophical construction. They thought that special relativity tells us something about the way we see things. Not about how they really are.
Well, they were wrong. We know that length contraction is real. A moving object really is shorter...
https://youtu.be/2IwZB9PdJVw
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/2IwZB9PdJVw
https://youtu.be/2IwZB9PdJVw
VIDEO EXCERPT: Einstein’s theory of special relativity makes two most remarkable predictions. The first is time dilation, the other one is length contraction. Time dilation means that if an object moves faster than its internal time passes slower. Length contraction means that the same fast-moving object will also be shorter. It’s not that it appears shorter, it actually is shorter.
In the decades after Einstein put forward is theories of space and time, physicists continued to question that it was correct. In 1931, a group of scientists went so far as to publish a book called “100 authors against Einstein.” It’s an interesting historical summary of why people rejected Einstein’s insights, more than 2 decades after he had put them forward.
Some of them claimed Einstein’s maths is wrong. Some said the maths is right, but they did it earlier. The most frequent objection though was that they thought Einstein’s theory is merely a philosophical construction. They thought that special relativity tells us something about the way we see things. Not about how they really are.
Well, they were wrong. We know that length contraction is real. A moving object really is shorter...
https://youtu.be/2IwZB9PdJVw