Why is Relativity Hard? | Special Relativity Chapter 1

This is the first in a series of videos about special relativity. This is definitely not an academic course, but it's going to be a more in depth and developed exploration of a single topic than a typical standalone MinutePhysics video. I've been greatly inspired (and heckled) to do this by my friend Grant Sanderson of 3blue1brown who's set the standard for this kind of thing with his excellent series - serieses? - on calculus and linear algebra.

So, special relativity. Special relativity is one of the most popularly famous ideas in physics – it's that thing that Einstein figured out about the speed of light and space and time and E=mc^2! It changed our understanding of the universe. And its core ideas are accessible in principle to anyone who understands some basic algebra and geometry - you don't even need to know calculus!

And yet in spite of this, special relativity is one of the subjects in physics that confuses the most people, and in many cases turns them away from physics altogether.

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[acapellascience]

Ooh I like this. And I also love how Grant is forcing everyone to up their game.

[EEVblog]

Oooooh, hardware on Minute Physics!
Awesome + 1

[OleKristianElns]

I got relatively excited by this. I think this will be a special series.

[craig.]

The idea of Grant Sanderson heckling other youtubers is hilarious

[supercanadian]

Special Relativity?

Yea, I'm gonna need a little more than a minute for this one

[BenEater]

Yes! This is phenomenal! The world definitely needs more things towards the middle of that chart at 0:10. I’m very excited that we’re about to get another example of what that looks like when it’s done well. Nice work Grant :)

[MiraJain]

i love going through my old liked videos it's like "turtle playing never gonna give you up on an otamatone" and then "Hi, I'm gonna talk about special relativity" this is why i don't know what to say when people ask me what i like

[anonxnor]

3blue1brown has gotten pretty big it seems, and it makes me very happy to see other channels mention him so he gets even more exposure. Looking forward to this series! :)

[AngelProductions]

I'm sold. I'll be here for all of it

[DropBlairCares]

I think blaming Einstein for why spec. relativity is hard is just wrong. When you read Relativity, (the book he wrote on the subject) he actually explains it in a nice and intuitive way, stepping through the process going from Newtonian relativity to special relativity (and general) using trains as an example.

I'd wager that the difficulty comes from pop science culture, showing the most weird and wonderful things about relativity, quantum mechanics, or thermodynamics without providing any framework for why these things actually make sense. Look, the faster you go the more time slows down, look quantum mechanics has weird randomness isn't science great!

[MrRolnicek]

I need to buy this spacetime map.
SOMEONE START SELLING IT.

[davidstoneback]

Minute Physics is doing a series on special relativity you say? Take my money I say.

[shannoncamara]

I actually took a class on special relativity (it was split between SR and waves) last semester at Johns Hopkins. Using a bit of linear algebra and some 4-vectors made it seem like a much smaller feat. Really enjoyed the class overall, as it was sort of an intro to where physics can get a little wonky

[Squirrel]

"hopefully you'll gain some intuition", it was inspired by grant allright

[phil]

We took about a month at the end of my mechanics course to learn special relativity, and it’s truly mind boggling in it’s implications. Thanks for getting this video out there and making it more accessible to more people!

[TheAllroth]

This is awesome! I am very much looking forward to watching the rest of the series!
I actually took a course dedicated to special relativity during last semester and it was really interesting and I'm very excited to see how you portray it. :)

[CKTDanny]

When I took physics in high school, I went in thinking I'd be a star. Man, it was *tough* but these videos make it seem so simple

[xdoods]

YES! I didn't know I wanted this series until it showed up in my notifications.

[celineprovins]

I cannot wait to watch the following episode of this serie 😍 !!
I'm a physics student and exactly like you said I never understand properly what I'm doing when working with relativity. That's because I've never learned properly about it, just a few courses squeezed in between other subjects.
If you can give me the intuition behind the equations, I will be super grateful 😄👍👍👍

[savajevtic]

_turns them away altogether_

Special relativity literally made me *love* physics lol