section_path: Special relativity
section_name: Special relativity
paragraph_text: Special relativity
  
  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 and mathematicians, see History of special relativity). Special relativity is based on two postulates which are contradictory in classical mechanics:
  
  The resultant theory copes with experiment better than classical mechanics. For instance, postulate 2 explains the results of the Michelson–Morley experiment. Moreover, the theory has many surprising and counterintuitive consequences. Some of these are:
  
  The defining feature of special relativity is the replacement of the Galilean transformations of classical mechanics by the Lorentz transformations. (See Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism.)