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{{introductory article|Special relativity}}
{{Special relativity sidebar}}
[[File:Einstein1921 by F Schmutzer 2.jpg|right|thumb|
In [[physics]], '''[[special relativity]]''' is a fundamental [[theory]] concerning [[space]] and [[time]], developed by [[Albert Einstein]] in 1905<ref>"On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies". (fourmilab.ch web site): [http://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/einstein/specrel/www/ Translation from the German article]: "Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Körper", ''Annalen der Physik''. '''17''':891-921. (June 30, 1905)</ref> as a modification of [[Galilean invariance|Galilean relativity]]. (See "[[History of special relativity]]" for a detailed account and the contributions of [[Hendrik Lorentz]] and [[Henri Poincaré]].) The theory was able to explain some pressing [[theoretical physics|theoretical]] and [[experimental physics|experimental]] issues in the physics of the time involving [[light]] and [[electrodynamics]], such as the failure of the 1887 [[Michelson–Morley experiment]], which aimed to measure differences in the relative speed of light due to the [[Earth's orbit|Earth's motion]] through the hypothetical, and now discredited, [[luminiferous aether]]. The aether was then considered to be the medium of propagation of [[electromagnetic wave]]s such as light.
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