The genesis of this post was muons. They are created when cosmic rays strike particles in the outer atmosphere. They are extremely short lived (~2 microseconds) and so logic would tell you they should not last long enough to travel the distance from their creation to the Earth's surface. However, since they are traveling at near the speed of light the time dilation and length contraction predicted by relativity comes into play and they can make the journey.
So, what's this traveling at the speed of light business and the relativistic effects that so effect the muons? The above video, inspired by Lewis Carroll Epstein's book Relatively Visualized, gives a nice and simple explanation of it. I did like the enthusiasm of the presenter.
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