the nth dimension: yesterday's physics: general relativity

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Introduction

General relativity was the revolutionary theory proposed by Albert Einstein in 1915 that proposed a new way of explaining the nature of gravity. Previously, Einstein had said that distance and time are not fixed; they were based on the motion of the observer with his Theory on Special Relativity (It’s relative!). Now, with his new theory, gravity was established as being equal to acceleration, and, thus, gravity had the capability of warping space!

History and Development

Introduced by Albert Einstein in 1915 after the last theory on the nature of gravity proposed by Isaac Newton about one hundred and fifty years earlier, the Theory of General Relativity has achieved colossal fame, even after Einstein won the Nobel Prize for work in another field – the photoelectric effect – in 1921. General Relativity is based on the Equivalence Principle, which states that gravitation and acceleration are two phenomena describing essentially the same underlying concept.

No one can distungish between an accelerated lift and gravitation.
Einstein first explained this Equivalence Principle in 1907 when he said, “We shall therefore assume the complete physical equivalence of a gravitational field and the corresponding acceleration of the reference frame. This assumption extends the principle of relativity to the case of uniformly accelerated motion of the reference frame.” Basically, by incorporating what Einstein had said in this theory on Special Relativity and stating that gravity and acceleration are equivalent, then it can be said that motion affects gravity (like time and space), as well. The principles of General Relativity have been used to predict the bending of light emitted by stars and the precession of Mercury, and these two predictions have been confirmed experimentally. Unfortunately, the two most spectacular phenomena predicted by General Relativity – the validity of black holes and the power of gravity on the whole universe – are thought to not be confirmable.

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