WSU: Special Relativity with Brian Greene
Why Physics Stack Exchange recommends it
Physics Stack Exchange askers cite it as the lecture they are learning relativity from, then ask about specific examples and explanations in it, such as the light clock, simultaneity and the Gracie and George race.
Recommended by 1 people across 1 different months, 2022 to 2025.
What it is
An 11.5-hour World Science U master class in which physicist Brian Greene teaches special relativity using only high school algebra. It covers the speed of light, relativity of simultaneity, time dilation, length contraction and E = mc^2, with chapter markers throughout.
What people said
Recommends Ankur · 2024-02 · Physics Stack Exchange · on “Time observed in a clock when you start moving relative to it”
There's an example given by Brian Green, [this video] To be precise the example start at 04:56:00. In brief it is as follows: There are two persons Gracie and George at a starting line and they are supposed to calculate how long it takes for Gracie to travel from starting line to finish line. Also there's another team at the finish line which is basically stationary to George (We can call it as George's team) which also calculates total time of travel. The distance between starting line and finish line is 156 light-minutes. Gracie starts moving with a speed of 12/13c. Now when she reaches the finish line, from George's perspective and also from his team's perspective 169 minutes have passed. Also
Cites Nathan · 2022-08 · Physics Stack Exchange · on “Time Dilation Explanation”
This might be a dumb question but I'm still going to ask it. So basically I've been trying to learn Special Relativity through this lecture by Brian Greene [this video] , and the way he justifies time dilation is through a Light Clock. I think I understand this, but I just don't know how I could picture this with a normal clock, or without a clock at all. If someone could explain this to me, that would be great. Any help is much appreciated. Thank you!
Cites user517650 · 2025-07 · Physics Stack Exchange · on “Question about relativity of simultaneity vs signal delay”
I have some misunderstandings about the relativity of simultaneity. On Earth (in the same inertial frame), can two observers agree that one event happened at the same time, so the difference in perceptions comes only due to the signal delay? In this video, WSU: Special Relativity with Brian Greene [this video] , at 54:30 - 1:03:28 he warns that we must distinguish what we observe vs what really happened (he also calls it "measured"). Does he want to say that what we observe is not reality, so we must first post-process the situation to figure out what is reality? I don't understand when events are not simultaneous, due to signal delay vs when it's due to relativity of simultaneity?