Demystifying Special Relativity; the K-Factor

This paper targets upper-level high school students and incoming college freshmen who have been less exposed to Special Relativity (SR). The goal is to spark interest and eliminate any feelings of intimidation one might have about a topic brought forth by world genius Albert Einstein. For this purpose, we will introduce some ideas revolving around SR. Additionally, by deriving the relationship between the k-factor and relative velocity, we hope that students come to an appreciation for the impact of basic mathematical skills and the way these can be applied to quite complex models. Advanced readers can directly jump ahead to the section discussing the k-factor.