Relativity: The Special and the General Theory began as a short physics paper and was eventually published as a book written by Albert Einstein with the aim of giving: . . . an exact insight into the theory of relativity to those readers who, from a general scientific and philosophical point of view, are interested in the theory, but who are not conversant with the mathematical apparatus of theoretical physics. Special relativity is a theory of the structure of spacetime. It was introduced in Einstein's 1905 paper "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" (for the contributions of many other physicists see History of special relativity). Special relativity is based on two postulates which are contradictory in classical mechanics: The laws of physics are the same for all observers in uniform motion relative to one another (principle of relativity). The speed of light in a vacuum is the same for all observers, regardless of their relative motion or of the motion of the light source.
