It always struck me as unfair that a lot of the promised explanations of relativity lead the reader along, even making encouraging remarks that all you have to do is concentrate a little, yet then, at a crucial point, they suddenly jump up a level, bringing in calculus or other mathematics that the ordinary reader would never have learned.

To get around that, I’m going to explain what’s going on in basic relativity with ordinary words or pictures as much as possible. Any math used will only be beginning high school stuff.

I’m starting with two brief items: