Which aspect of Einstein's theory of special relativity was testable?
the postulates only
the postulates and the predictions
the predictions only
none of the aspects
Postulates are assumptions without prove. In that case, I don't believe the postulates were testable, but they could have been. I'm not really sure.
*Proof. My bad
The aspect of Einstein's theory of special relativity that was testable is the combination of both the postulates and the predictions.
Einstein's theory of special relativity is made up of two postulates:
1. The laws of physics are the same for all observers in all inertial reference frames.
2. The speed of light in a vacuum is constant and independent of the motion of the source or the observer.
These postulates were initially proposed by Einstein without any experimental evidence. However, they were subject to verification through experiments and observations. Scientists conducted several experiments to test the validity of these postulates, such as the Michelson-Morley experiment.
In addition to the postulates, Einstein's theory of special relativity also made several predictions that were testable. Some of the important predictions are time dilation (time appears to run slower for objects moving relative to an observer), length contraction (length appears to shorten for objects moving relative to an observer), and the equivalence of mass and energy (E=mc²).
Scientists conducted various experiments and observations over the years to test these predictions. Some notable experiments include the measurement of the decay rates of fast-moving particles, the observation of the time dilation effects in high-speed particle accelerators, and the measurement of the speed of light in different reference frames.
Therefore, both the postulates (laws) proposed by Einstein and the predictions derived from the theory were testable through experiments, making these the aspects that were subject to empirical verification.