What is special relativity? I want it in a very  simplified manner?
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General relativity is the geometrical theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915. It unifies special relativity and Isaac Newton's law of universal gravitation with the insight that gravitation is not viewed as being due to a force (in the traditional sense) but rather a manifestation of curved space and time, this curvature being produced by the mass-energy content of the spacetime.\n\nmore info for you :)
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"Short Words to Explain Relativity"\n\nAlbert Einstein's Theory of Relativity\n\nIn Words of Four Letters or Less\n\nhttp://www.muppetlabs.com/~breadbox/txt/al.html
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You misunderstand Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity. It doesn't say that you can't have something move faster than the speed of light. Only "information" can NOT move faster than the speed of light. By information, I mean any "signal", like electromagnetic waves (which includes light, radio waves, etc. etc.). Any material object within the Universe are also restricted by Special Relativity, since material objects also carry "information".\n\nFor the Universe or the fabric of spacetime to be expanding faster than the speed of light is NOT a violation of Special Relativity, and the Universe will not be moving backwards in time.\n\n--------------------------------------------------------\n\nEdit - Ok, here let me clarify why I said that Special Relativity (SR) does NOT apply to the expansion of the Universe:\n\nVelocity of something depends on which definition of distance we use. So, if we assume that the distance of an object at time t is the distance from our position at time t to the object's position at time t measured by a set of observers moving with the expansion of the Universe, and all making their observations when they see the Universe as having age t, then the velocity (change in D per change in t) can definitely be larger than the speed of light. This is not a contradiction of special relativity because this "distance" is not the same as the spatial distance used in SR, and the age of the Universe is not the same as the time used in SR.\n\nIn the special case of the "empty Universe", where one can show the model in both special relativistic and cosmological coordinates, the velocity defined by change in cosmological distance per unit cosmic time is given by v = c ln(1+z), where z is the redshift, which clearly goes to infinity as the redshift goes to infinity, and is larger than c for z > 1.718.\n\nFor the "critical density Universe", this velocity is given by v = 2c[1-(1/sqrt(1+z))], which is larger than c for z > 3. \n\nFor the "concordance model" based on CMB data and the acceleration of the expansion measured using supernovae, a flat Universe with Omega = 0.27 (this would be our Universe), the velocity is greater than c for z > 1.407\n\nAll this just means that for any expanding universe, there will be a value of z (i.e., redshift or cosmological distance) that will give the appearance of galaxies moving at velocities greater than c.
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Well, there are two different theories of relativity - general and special relativity.  The basic principle is this:\n\nSpecial relativity = inertial motion, can't move faster than light, e=mc^2\nGeneral relativity = accelerating motion, Newton's gravity + special relativity = curved spacetime, gravity and stuff.\n\nJust making sure you knew that and all.  But general relativity... yes...\n\nWhenever you hear someone talking about gravity curving spacetime, that's general relativity.  This comes from the fact that general relativity, unlike special relativity, deals with accelerating reference frames: Einstein postulated that there's no difference between being under the influence of gravity and accelerating upward (think: if you're in an elevator in the middle of space and you feel yourself being pulled downward, which is it - are you being pulled by gravity, or is the elevator accelerating upward?  You can't tell...).  But anyway, the closest you get to a "statement" are the postulates, which I got from wikipedia:\n\n1."The general principle of relativity: The laws of physics must be the same for all observers (accelerated or not)."\n\nAnd,\n\n2."The principle of general covariance: The laws of physics must take the same form in all coordinate systems."\n\nThese two mean that if you're sitting on your chair, in an airplane, or in the starship enterprise (I'm such a nerd.  And, to tell the truth, more a Star Wars man than a Trekkie.  Not that I don't like the Trek.  Like, Voyager?  So good.  And so much better than the prequels.  Darn you, George Lucas), and no matter whom or what you observe, light will travel at it's speed limit c, every action will have an equal and opposite reaction, and so on.\n\nNext:\n\n3."The principle that inertial motion is geodesic motion: The world lines of particles unaffected by physical forces are timelike or null geodesics of spacetime."\n\nThat only matters if you're actually studying general relativity.  All that basically says is that spacetime is curved, and we move through it like little marbles on a rubber sheet or something.  Like the pennies you put into that funnel that go round and round and round into the donation box at the bottom.  Something like that.\n\n4.The principle of local Lorentz invariance: The laws of special relativity apply locally for all inertial observers.\n\nThis means that special relativity only applies if you aren't accelerating.\n\n5."Spacetime is curved: This permits gravitational effects such as freefall to be described as a form of inertial motion."\n\nYeah.  I'm not sure how much more I can explain that one.\n\n6."Spacetime curvature is created by stress-energy within the spacetime: This is described in general relativity by the Einstein Field Equations."\n\nWhich means that physics students have to integrate and stuff when they take general relativity.  Describes just how space-time gets curved.\n\nSo, um... I hope I helped you.  I'm not sure how much you know about fizzax, so I tried to make it understandable and explanatory at the same time.  And I hope I didn't make any horrible mistakes... I'm just an undergrad, after all.\n\nIn a fight between Cpt. Kirk and Han Solo, Chuck Norris would win.
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In special relativity theory, the main cocept is the formula\n E = Mc^2. Here importance has been given to the frame of reference. We view same things differently from different frames of reference. \nWhereas in general theory, the main concept is the warping of space-time fabric by massive body. It is also based on adding time as the fourth dimension. \nIf you need more information from me, you can mail me at <supratim1_dey@yahoo.co.in>.  I am a space scientist from India. I will be very happy to give you more information. Bye!!!
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Visit this link for a good explanation:\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_relativity
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Albert Einstein's 1905 paper "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" introduced the special theory of relativity. Special relativity considers that observers in inertial reference frames, which are in uniform motion relative to one another, cannot perform any experiment to determine which one of them is "stationary". This is known as the principle of relativity. While this principle was not new to Albert Einstein's work, he found that including electromagnetism in this principle required a new formalism with many surprising consequences. In particular, it required the speed of light in a vacuum to be the same for all these observers, regardless of their motion or the motion of the source of the light.\n\nOne of the strengths of special relativity is that it can be derived from only two premises:\n\nThe laws of physics are the same in any inertial frame of reference. This means that the laws of physics observed by a hypothetical observer traveling with a relativistic particle must be the same as those observed by an observer who is stationary in the laboratory. \nThe speed of light in a vacuum is constant (specifically, 299,792,458 meters per second).
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Yup, relativity and qunatum mechanics work together nicely.  You'll need to account for the switch to using spacetime quantities instead of space and time quantities, and the fundemental equations get kind of hairy, but they still work out fine.
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In simpler words: special theory of relativity is just a special case of the general theory!\n\nGeneral theory of relativity deals with accelerated frames of reference. In other words when we have the 'acceleration not equal to zero' (e.g. gravitational acceleration), we use general theory. That is why this is mainly a 'theory of gravity'. One special case for this can easily be when acceleration = 0, and that is the case of special relativity! This is the basic difference between the two theories.\n\nThe other differences could be seen in the postulates of these two theories:\nSpecial theory of relativity postulates:\n1. A frame of reference moving with a constant velocity (i.e., no acceleration) with respect to an inertial frame, is also an inertial frame.\n2. Speed of light in vacuum remains constant in all inertial frames of reference.\n\nGeneral theory of relativity postulates:\n1. In an accelerated frame of reference (with respect to an inertial frame) the spacetime is warped. \nOr, Gravity warps spacetime. \n2. In an accelerated frame of reference (with respect to an inertial frame) the time is dilated. \nOr, Gravity dilates time.\n\n***\nInertial frames: A given region (or coordinate system) where Newton's laws are valid.\nSpacetime: The region in space and time.\nWarped: Distorted\nDilated: Slowed down.
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The question deals with the expansion of the Universe, with the simplifying assumption that the object asserted to have an expansion speed away from us (by measuring its red-shift) has ALWAYS been traveling at 3,000 km/sec, and that its (known) distance is 50 Mpc.\n\nHowever, your requested operation is inverted!  That is obvious since any number of Mpc's (a length) divided by a speed (km/sec) will give one a time, but yours, quite the opposite, will give you 1 over a time.  Personally, I prefer my wristwatch to measure time t rather than t^(-1), but hey, if you could develop that, there might still be someone out there who'd want to buy it!\n\nLive long and prosper.
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Quantum mechanics has no problems with special relativity.  \nIt is with only gravity and general relativity that there is a problem.  The problem is that no one fully understands how gravity works on a small scale.  On the other quantum mechanics is really hard to do on a large scale.  It is only in some extreme cases do the two clash.  As far as I know time is not the problem.\nIt is that in physics ever theory has its limits, which is why we eventually find a more complete theory to replace it as a knowledge increases.
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Any event in spacetime has a Lorentz invariant quantity associated with it (in otherwords, this value is the same for all observers in all frames.)  \n\nThis quantity is (ict)^2+x^2+y^2+z^2 where c is the speed of light, i is the square root of -1, t is time, and x, y and z are the familiar cartesian coordinates of 3 space. (More precisely, it is the difference in x, y, z and ict between two events squared  and added together that is invariant for all observers. The above equation assumes we have selected the first event to occur at some arbitrarily defined point in space time where (x,y,z,ict) = (0,0,0,0)  ).\n\n In other words, for any observer who records an event that occurred at a specific time and calculates this value for that event, and then compares their calculation to that of another observer in another reference frame, will find that time and or space have dialated such that the other observer calculates the same end result. \n\nIn still other words, "c" is a constant that lets you figure out how space and time have to change in different reference frames such that an event has the same Lorentz invariant for everyone.\n\nThere is not a connection between only c and time, but between c and the combined coordinates of space AND time (aka spacetime).  You can't separate space from time, and the manner in which they are intertwined depends on "c", the speed of light. All of those cool time dialation and space contraction effects can be derived from this forumlation of the Lorentz invariant.
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Theory of Relativity- Light is the one speed that does remain constant.
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It is a real effect and can be important in particle accelerators where subatomic particles are going close to the speed of light. It turns out that the radioactive particles decay slower when they are moving at these high speeds. So it doesn't just appear that time slows down, it really does.\n\nThis is a consequence of special relativity where there are two basic assumptions:\n1) All motion is relative...you can't tell whether you are moving or everyone else is.\n2) The speed of light is the same to everyone.\n\nThe first assumption was true for classical mechanics, but the second was not and is what makes all the strange results of relativity. In some sense, it turns out that someone moving with respect to you has time and space 'rotated' with respect to each other. This makes both space and time measurements different for you and them. Two events that you see as being at the same time or place won't be for them. Two events they see as being at the same time or place won't be for you. The slowing of time is an effect that only applies to events that either you or they see as being in the same place (or very close by). Otherwise more complicated computations have to be done to determine how each sees things. Look up Lorentz transformations.
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Probably you mean the classical Galilei transformation.\nThe relativistic one is the Lorentz transformation.\nGrüss Ihnen.\n\nTh
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probably your teacher drives to school in a car that can reach relativistic speed ( a good fraction of c)\n\nnow seriously :  in our every day life time and space can very well be considered independent, you can separate them with a high level *very very high) of accuracy. These effects of Special and General Relativity are negligible in the world around us.\n\nThat's why all students of Physics still begin their study with Newtonian mechanics and all engineers here on earth do not apply relativity formulas where space and time are interdependent
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Special relativity was made to correct some inconsistencies between Maxwell's equations for electromagnetism and classical physics. Einstein took Maxwell's equationas as given and deduced the equations of motion that would be consistent with them. In particular, the invariance of the speed of light in a vacuum leads to most of special relativity. The Maxwell equations are already invariant under the transformation in special relativity, so charge does not need to change with speed to make them so. Mass does have to change in order to make the mechanics work out right.