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Thursday, November 19, 2015 8:08:31 AM
The Theory of Relativity explained.
BACK STORY
On four consecutive Thursdays 100 years ago, Einstein presented his general theory of relativity — which explains what gravity is — to the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin.
The final form of the equation that Einstein revealed in the last of those four lectures became one of science’s monumental achievements.
Albert Einstein in 1931. Credit Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
One of its proposals was that gravity, especially when strong, slows time and bends space. The amount of slowing and bending depends on how much matter and energy are present.
So watches run slightly faster on the top story of a building than at street level because they are farther from the center of the earth, in a weaker gravitational field. And the sun’s strong gravity bends space enough for stars to appear out of place from certain vantage points during an eclipse.
One unconfirmed anecdote says that Einstein told his secretary to tell this to callers asking what the theory means:
“When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, you think it’s only a minute, but when you sit on a hot stove for a minute, you think it’s two hours. That’s relativity.”
But what Einstein really explained is that there is no fixed frame of reference in the universe and that everything is moving relative to everything else.
BACK STORY
On four consecutive Thursdays 100 years ago, Einstein presented his general theory of relativity — which explains what gravity is — to the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin.
The final form of the equation that Einstein revealed in the last of those four lectures became one of science’s monumental achievements.
Albert Einstein in 1931. Credit Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
One of its proposals was that gravity, especially when strong, slows time and bends space. The amount of slowing and bending depends on how much matter and energy are present.
So watches run slightly faster on the top story of a building than at street level because they are farther from the center of the earth, in a weaker gravitational field. And the sun’s strong gravity bends space enough for stars to appear out of place from certain vantage points during an eclipse.
One unconfirmed anecdote says that Einstein told his secretary to tell this to callers asking what the theory means:
“When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, you think it’s only a minute, but when you sit on a hot stove for a minute, you think it’s two hours. That’s relativity.”
But what Einstein really explained is that there is no fixed frame of reference in the universe and that everything is moving relative to everything else.
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