Length is relative
A king drew a line on the floor and asked his wise men to shorten the line with out modifying the original line. Everyone was puzzled, how it is possible to shorten a line without modifying the original line.
At that time, one of his ministers came forward and drew another longer line near the first line. The minister asked the king, look at the two lines and say which of the lines is shorter? The king at once replied, the line drawn first is shorter than the line drawn latter. This shows that the length is relative.
Position is relative
Imagine two friends are standing on the opposite banks of a river facing each other. There is a house situated on one side of the bank of the river. One friend says that the house is towards the left side while the other friend says that the house is towards right side. Now the question is, whether the house is on the left side or right side. The answer is, both the answers are correct because the house is to the left side of one persons and right side to the other person. This clearly shows that position is relative.
Size is relative
If we compare a hockey ball with an atom, then the size of the ball is extremely very big. Similarly if we compare a hockey ball with earth, the size of the earth is extremely very big. Thus we can say that the size is relative.
Motion is relative
Let us consider a train is in motion with a velocity 60 km/h. The moving train is observed by three observers, the first person standing stationary on the platform, the second moving in the direction of train with a velocity 20 km/h and the third moving with a velocity 30 km/h in the opposite direction of the train. The first observer would observe the train moving with velocity of 60 km/h itself, the second observer would observe the train moving with velocity of (60-20) 40 km/h and the third would observe the train moving with velocity of (60+30) 90 km/h. Thus, the velocity of the train is different for different observers and so motion is relative.
Time is relative
What is the time now? The answer depends upon the location because the time now in India is different from the time in America. The time now in North Pole is different from the time now in South Pole. There is no paradox here because we cannot answer the question without referring to the place. Thus time is relative.
A puzzle based on time dilation
Suppose a scientist of 40 years old falls in love with his beautiful laboratory assistant of 18 years old. The scientist wants to marry her but the age difference is so much that the marriage is out of question. Hence, one day the scientist takes a journey to space in a rocket moving with a velocity 0.99 time the velocity of light.
The scientist returns back and observes that his clock reads one year. To his utter surprise the clock of his laboratory assistant reads 22 years. In this way the scientist’s age now is 41 years while the assistant’s age is 18+22=40 years. Now, they get married happily without any difficulty, reciting limerick.
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