A Short History of Nearly Everything Part of 13/36 completel | Blinkist Summary Book

A Short History of Nearly Everything
Part of 13/36

completely. 
The key message in this blink is: Einstein’s special theory of relativity states that time is relative.
Einstein first explained his special theory of relativity in these 1905 papers. Put very simply this theory states that the notion of time is relative – it does not progress constantly.
It can be a difficult concept to wrap your head around. After all time feels constant. Every second every minute every hour passes at exactly the same speed. It doesn’t speed up or slow down and it feels like there is nothing we can do to change it. 
But time is relative. Time can pass at different speeds depending on different circumstances. It has to do with your relative position and speed compared to someone or something else. 
To explain let’s use an example from British philosopher Bertrand Russell. Imagine you’re on a station platform. Approaching the station is a train traveling at almost the speed of light. For you this train would appear distorted and the voices of those i