The theory orfrelativity has always eluded me despite my best efforts to try to understand it.  Now, finally I am getting some relief in the form of Walter Isaacson's 2007 biography of Einstein.  He devotes a full chapter (the Miracle Year) to special relativity and does a great job.  I am not hopelessly lost, in part because Einstein based his theory on his own throught experiments, not lab work or complex mathematics.

One of his revolutionary conclusions is that contrary to Newtonian physics, there is no absolute time or space.  He also says that there is no such things as two events happening simultaneously.  From the vantage point of two observers in inertia, one say on an embankment and another on a fast moving train, the events will be perceived to have occurred at different times, and, Einstein says, you cannot say which of them is correct.  Got that?

Another famous conclusion is that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, which is about 186,000 miles per second.    I almost discovered this myself as a child, long before I even heard of Einstein.  I would stand in front of my bathroom mirror, facing away from it, and then spin around super fast hoping to see the back of my head in the mirror for an instant.  It never happened.  I wonder if Einstein tried that.

Here is something interesting.    He was about 25 years old when he formulated special relativity, working as a clerk in the Bern Patent Office examing patent applications.  His boss had a credo that said you have to remain critically vigilant.  Question every premise, challenge conventional wisdon, and never accept the truth of something merely because everyong else views it as obvious.  Resist being credulous.