EVERYTHING IS RELATIVE.

More than a hundred and six years ago a genius called Einstein gave world the theory of relativity (1905, the year in which Einstein proposed the theory of special relativity). The theory revolutionize the experiments & research in physics on one hand, while on the other hand, the theory gave explanation to major unanswered questions in astrophysics like neutron stars, black holes, gravitational waves, etc.

          The relativity theory literally replaced the Newton’s concept of motion, stating that all motion is relative!!! It stripped time of the authority/property to be uniform & absolute. Time was now dependent on velocity and time contraction was a new property attributed to time provided, the speed is appropriate.

                   The postulates of the theory of relativity says that :1)  The laws of physics are the same for all observers in uniform motion relative to each other  (Principle of relativity.)
2) The speed of light in a vacuum is same for all observers regardless of their relative motion or the motion of source of lights.

There were many surprising consequences of the theory. Some which we are going to discuss here are:
a)    Light Contraction: Objects are measured to be shortened in the direction that they are moving w.r.t observer i.e. A same object may appear of different shape (length) to one stationary observer, while other observer in motion thinks it is longer.
b)    Relativity of Simultaneity: Two events simultaneous for one observer may not be simultaneous for another observer, if the observers are in relative. 

         As a reader you must be thinking that why I am telling you all these things, these things one can easily get on Wikipedia or net. My purpose of writing this was to make you little prepared for the topic we are going to discuss now.

Long before Einstein proposed his theory we as human beings were practicing one of the applied components of the theory. We have developed a relativity of comparativeness. We as human beings , always try to relate the things which are not with us and compare ourselves with the ones who are having that things. If my neighbors buy a 32 inches LED TV, I will instantly compare my 21 inches color TV with the LED and start relating myself with the virtual LED TV. I will visualize stating how fun it would be watching my favorite movies in that TV. I will start working hard so that I can afford that TV. We are so much obsessed with the comparison that we are never contented with things we have. We always crave for more and more, first in quality and then in quantity. This tendency of human beings is the main reason for progress of our race and at the same time, the miseries we are facing.

 Consider another example, there was a layman who migrated from village in search of job and started working as an unskilled worker. He was having a son, who was smart enough to complete his studies and joins the same company as of his father, but as a skilled worker. Comparatively the son is more successful than his father and you will agree to this.

There’s an another family of two business tycoons who inherit the wealth from their father and decide to split citing the differences with each taking companies of his choice. They run their family business independently with each controlling some core industries. After some years, the younger brother earns Rs. 300 crore per year, whereas the elder brother earns Rs. 1000 crore. Who’s the successful of the two brothers? Now let’s compare the second brother with layman’s son. It will be foolish to say that the business tycoon is winner because in that case we will be only comparing them on basis of their assets.

The habit of relating and comparison starts from the childhood, in the form of our school marks. The competition to score higher marks has subdued our joy of learning. The endless race for materialistic things are stolen the satisfaction of working. This race is often ridiculed as rat race. We run for imaginary happiness. I think that a phone will make me happy; I work for buying a phone. But after buying a phone, I start thinking that a phone with features like mp3 player, good camera, java platform should be bought and it will suffice me. I again start working to get that. I keep changing phones to satisfy myself and still I am unsatisfied somewhere.

This chase of the mirage continues and I end up my life in chasing the materialistic needs. We have made our world a battle ground and are fighting against each other.

Stopping here as I guess I am drifting from my topic.

Thanks and Happy Reading.