Video explains the theory of special relativity in a fun style

With simple and intuitive experiments and illustrations, the 18-year-old Ryan Chester created a video clip that makes it easy to understand what Einstein's special theory of relativity is and How is it proven. This video has been awarded an outstanding science video in the Breakthrough Prize, co-founded by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg last year to honor the scientific achievements that benefit mankind.

Learn about Einstein's theory of relativity through funny and lively videos

In the video posted on YouTube titled "Some Cool Ways of Looking at the Special Theory of Relativity" ( Chester): Chester said: "The The expansion of time is mentioned a lot in television shows and movies, but we only accept it without really understanding whether it is true or not. So I decided to make this video to exploit that problem. "

Finally, Chester's video surpassed more than 2,000 entries, winning 15 others in the final round and bringing in the $ 400,000 prize money and honor trophy. Chester will receive $ 250,000 for the education award and his teacher Richard Nestoff will receive $ 50,000. The remaining $ 100,000 will be given to North Royalton High School, where Chester is studying to build the lab.

Ryan Chester - the winner of the Breakthrough Award and the $ 250,000 prize thanks to a fun video explaining the theory of special relativity.

It must be acknowledged that Chester's problem approach is much easier to understand than the theorem often written in textbooks and scientific journals. In the standard way, Einstein's special theory of relativity is based on two propositions: (1) the laws of physics are completely the same in all inertial reference systems; and (2) the speed of light in a vacuum is the same for all observers, regardless of the motion of the light source.

In the first post, Chester experimented with a person sitting on the ground, facing a bowl of popcorn placed on a chair and "nothing happened" even though we all know the Earth is always moving. When carrying a person sitting in a chair and a bowl of popcorn on a car running evenly, the system remains still. Chester explained: "Popcorn will behave exactly the same in any reference system." However, as long as the car brakes quickly, both the person and the corn bowl will lean forward.

In the second post, Chester said: "It is difficult to conduct experimental experiments to prove and understand it, it is not just a natural result that we can test on Earth, where something at the speed of light is almost impossible ". Chester demonstrated again the experiment of Michelson-Morley - an extremely important physics experiment that proved the second postulate of special relativity, denying Galileo's formula of adding velocity to light.

Not only that, Chester also explained the most famous consequence of special relativity as brother paradox (when a person moves at nearly the speed of light, the distance and time shrink). The paradox is explained by both easy-to-understand graphics and mathematical equations, you can see more in the video if you like.

What a wonderful scientific approach and with this video, Chester accidentally told us that science really does not dry out in a "fuzzy way" and accepts it without asking questions. ask why. Science will be much simpler and easier to understand if we ask why and choose a fun, cute and close approach.