How did Einstein begin to develop his theory of relativity?

So I need to write a term paper on Albert Einstein. What was his road to develop this theory of relativity? who inspired him, why did he do it, how long did it take, that kind of thing.





any websites would also be appreciated! thank you so much!|||Just a side note, OldPilot is incorrect about one thing. Einstein didn't propose the space that special relativity is worked in today. The particular combination of space and time was proposed by Herman Minkowski. This is why it is also refered to as Minkowski space.|||1% inspiration, 99% perspiration. In other words, it was a lot of hard work.|||you cant really answer that without a good understanding of the problems that relativity solved. if you research relativity, then you should come to some sort of conclusion.|||Short answer: At the end of the 1800 scientists were measuring the speed of light compared to the orbital velocity of the earth and they got strange results





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelson%E…


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fizeau%E2%8…





They expected that the velocity of light would read higher when they were moving toward the source and lower when they were moving away from the source. But that is NOT what happened. They got the same reading regardless of the motion of the measuring device.





Digress: You are standing next a train going 100 kph. And you have a radar gun. There is a baseball pitcher on flat car throwing fast balls toward the front of the train. You know that the pitcher can throw 192 kph fastballs. You use the radar gun to measure the speed of the fastballs relative to you, standing on the ground. What would you expect to read when the train was coming toward you? (100 + 192 = 292 kph) What would you expect to read when the train was going away from you? (192 - 100 = 92 kph). The scientists expected the same thing to happen with light AND it didn't. I effect, it did not matter which way the train was going they always got 3 * 10^8 m/s. Very confusing!!!. They were sure there was something wrong with the experiment, but they could not figure out what. They believed that Time and Space were absolute (unchanging). This means that the speed of light just HAD to vary depending on the motion of the measuring instrument. IT HAD| TO!





Einstein's insight: Suppose the Speed of Light was absolute and Time and Space were relative to the motion of the measuring instrument (Time and Space expanded and contracted to keep the observed speed of light the same for all observers regardless of the motion of the measuring instrument). What would be the effect on every thing else? =====%26gt; Special Relativity





General Relativity grew out of: If Time and Space are flexible AND if we are inside a sealed room that is moving smoothly so that we cannot feel any vibration and that room is accelerating at a constant velocity (F=MA) we cannot tell if what we feel is gravity (the room is sitting still on the earth) or the acceleration (The room is accelerating at 9.8 m/s^2). We cannot tell! There is no experiment that would allow us to determine in the room is accelerating or sitting still in a gravity field. Special Relativity said acceleration could warp Time and Space AND if we cannot tell the difference then gravity must also warp Time and Space ====%26gt; Gravity is mass warping Time and Space ====%26gt; General Relativity





I wrote in terms of Time and Space. To make Special and General Relativity work, Einstein lumped them into a single 4 dimensional coordinate system called Space-Time





Saint Onle is correct. Einstein did get help on the math (Tensors) from his former college room mate that was a mathematician. The math for Special Relativity is easy. The math for General Relativity is very difficult and Einstein needed a lot of help to make GR work. Onle is correct the room mate should get more credit for his contribution. I knew that and should have said so.