Accomplished student Matthew “Matt” Kafker graduated as an AP Scholar and National Merit Commended Student from Middlesex School prior to enrolling as an undergraduate student. As a university student, Matt Kafker majors in physics and has completed several courses related to the field, including electrostatics and special relativity.
Special relativity, or the Special Theory of Relativity, is one part of Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. Developed in 1905, special relativity notes that the speed of light is constant, regardless of whether the observer is moving through space or not. In essence, if someone is driving a car alongside a train, the train is moving at a constant speed, regardless of whether the car is moving with the train, against the train, or staying still. However, at the same time, Einstein noted that the mass of a moving object increases with speed, while the passing of time decreases with speed.
Alongside his theory of special relativity, Einstein created his general theory of relativity some 10 years later. According to this theory, objects in space distort space-time when they have a high mass, thereby creating a gravitational field. This concept is illustrated by thinking of a trampoline with a body in the middle. The weight of the body presses down on the fabric and causes the trampoline to dip in the middle. A marble placed at the edge of the trampoline will be drawn to the middle because of this.
