Episode Details

“The Mechanical Universe..and Beyond” helps teachers demystify physics by showing students what looks like. Inventive computer graphics illustrate abstract concepts such as time, force, and capacitance. Visits with Newton, Leibniz, Maxwell, and others trace the evolution of theories and challenge students to observe physical processes going on around them.
In this episode: If the speed of light is to be the same for all observers, then the length of a meter stick, or the rate of a ticking clock, depends on who measures it.