Special relativity
In physics, special relativity (SR, also known as the special theory of relativity or STR) is the generally accepted and experimentally well-confirmed physical theory regarding the relationship between space and time. In Albert Einstein's original pedagogical treatment, it is based on two postulates:It was originally proposed by Albert Einstein in a paper published 26 September 1905 titled "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies". The inconsistency of Newtonian mechanics with Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism and the lack of experimental confirmation for a hypothesized luminiferous aether led to the development of special relativity, which corrects mechanics to handle situations involving motions at a significant fraction of the speed of light (known as ""). As of today, special relativity is the most accurate model of motion at any speed when gravitational effects are negligible. Even so, the Newtonian mechanics model is still useful as an approximation at small velocities relative to the speed of light, due to its simplicity and high accuracy within its scope.
History of Maxwell's equations
Albert Einstein dismissed the notion of the aether as an unnecessary one, and he concluded that Maxwell's equations predicted the existence of a fixed speed of light, "independent" of the velocity of the observer. Hence, he used the Maxwell's equations as the starting point for his Special Theory of Relativity. In doing so, he established that the FitzGerald–Lorentz transformation is valid for all matter and space, and not just Maxwell's equations. Maxwell's equations played a key role in Einstein's groundbreaking scientific paper on special relativity (1905). For example, in the opening paragraph of his paper, he began his theory by noting that a description of an electric conductor moving with respect to a magnet must generate a consistent set of fields regardless of whether the force is calculated in the rest frame of the magnet or that of the conductor.