Max Tegmark and Flora Lopis have been working hard on teaching the 8.033 course on relativity at MIT. They publish it today on the arXiv saying:

“To maximize the learning experience from this technical review, the reader is encouraged to sing it to the tune of Yellow Submarine, with italicized lines going like the chorus…”

Romer measured the speed of light,

and something basic just wasn’t right.

because Michaelson and Morley

showed that aether fit data poorly.

We jump to 1905.

In Einstein’s brain, ideas thrive:

“The laws of nature must be the same

in every inertial frame”

We all believe in relativity, relativity, relativity.

Yes we all believe in relativity, 8.033, relativity.



Einstein’s postulates imply

that planes are shorter when they fly.

Their clocks are slowed by time dilation,

and look warped from aberration.

Cos theta-prime is cos theta minus beta … over one minus beta cos theta.

Yes we all believe in relativity, 8.033, relativity.



With the Lorentz transformation,

we calculate the relation

between Chris’s and Zoe’s frame,

but all invariants, they are the same.

Like B dot E and B-squared minus E-squared,

… and the rest mass squared which is E-squared minus p-squared.

’cos we all believe in relativity, 8.033, relativity

Soon physicists had a proclivity

for using relativity.

But nukes made us all scared

because E = mc2.

Everything is relative, even simultaneity,

and soon Einstein’s become a de facto physics deity.

’cos we all believe in relativity, 8.033, relativity.

Ref: arxiv.org/abs/0804.0016: Relativity Revisited