In 1687, Isaac Newton in his main work, “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy” brought the law of gravity. The world learned that between any pair of bodies in the universe a force of mutual attraction. After decades of debate and checks the scientific community agreed that Newton’s postulate allows great precision explain and predict the motion of celestial bodies. For the first time the law of gravity directly confirmed the British chemist and physicist Henry Cavendish. In 1798 he designed the torsion balance, and measured them with the help of the force of attraction of the two spheres, determining the gravitational constant, the mass and the average density of the Earth. After some time, the law of gravity was regarded as a fundamental law of nature.
all changed Einstein
In 1859, the French astronomer Urbain Le Verrier noticed abnormal perihelion (closest point to the Sun orbit the planet or other celestial body of the solar system) Mercury. Because of this anomaly, scientists realized that Newton’s law is not absolute. The question of the mystical displacement of Mercury’s perihelion remained open until 1915 – it was then that the legendary physicist Albert Einstein developed the general theory of relativity, the equations which flowed exactly the value of the deviation was observed by astronomers.
«Einstein had to modify the laws of gravity in accordance with the principles of relativity – said the Nobel Prize in Physics Richard Feynman. – The first of these principles is that the distance X can not be overcome quickly, whereas Newton’s theory of forces act immediately.
Einstein had to change the laws of Newton.
These changes clarify the very small, one of them is this: because the light is energy, energy is equivalent to mass and all masses attract each other – light also attracted, and thus passes the Sun, must be rejected. So it’s really happening. The force of gravity is also slightly modified in Einstein’s theory. But this is a very small change in the law of gravity just enough to explain some of the apparent irregularities in the motion of Mercury ».
Fable has it that one day, Einstein went to Berne tram and happened to glance at the clock street. Academic lit a terrific idea: if the tram is now accelerated to the speed of light, the passenger would stop the clock, but time would not. Einstein realized that all depends on the terms of reference of the observer – and this insight led to the development of the theory of relativity.
We do not know how reliable the story of Bern tram (we do not know, fell Whether Apple on Newton’s head), but sure of one thing: the formulation of general relativity – is the result of long and hard work of the Nobel laureate.
By the way, on the other bike, one little son, Eduard Einstein asked his father why he was so famous. On this scientist said:
«You see, when a blind beetle crawls over the surface of the world, he does not notice that they traversed the path curved. I also was lucky enough to observe it ».
On the way to general relativity
In 1905, Albert Einstein created the special theory of relativity (STR) – theory describing the motion, the laws of mechanics and space-time relationships with arbitrary speeds less than the speed of light in vacuum, including close to the speed of light. According to SRT, the physical body, which is moving at a speed close to the speed of light, is compressed, it becomes harder and much slower aging.
One of the tests of the theory is the experiment Hafele-Keating, first demonstrated in 1971. Then two pairs of atomic clocks placed in planes that circled the globe twice. After that, “airplane” clock compared with the clock, stood all this time in the United States Naval Observatory. It was found that
past lagged behind the four “travelers” for a split second, which corresponds to Einstein’s SRT.
Soon, the scientist decided to expand its revolutionary theory and add the acceleration. It took Einstein a decade: during that time he collaborated with outstanding colleagues – mathematician David Hilbert and Marcel Grossmann. The result was the complete details of the new mathematical theory – general relativity, Einstein declared November 25, 1915. Max Born, a Nobel laureate in physics and one of the founders of quantum mechanics, said
new theory of Einstein – “the greatest achievement of the human mind in the knowledge of nature, a striking mix of philosophical depth physical intuition and mathematical art ».
In general relativity to the three spatial dimensions of added time, and the world is four-dimensional. According to the theory in turning upside down the whole of physics,
Gravity – a consequence of the curvature of space-time under the influence of the mass.
Explaining GRT humanities, physics often ask them to submit stretched sheet of rubber, which lowered the massive balls. Balls forced rubber and stretched sheet (which represents the space-time) is deformed. According to general relativity, the whole universe – a tire in which every planet, every star and every galaxy leave dents. The Earth revolves around the sun like a small ball, which was started to ride around the cone of the funnel formed by the “bursting” of spacetime heavy ball. Heavy ball – this is the sun.
The Golden Age of relativity
Albert Einstein claimed that due to the curvature of space-time path of light passing near a massive body should be bent. The scientist explained that, for example, the stars behind the Sun, we see elsewhere (as it deviates the light mass of the Sun). May 29, 1919 astronomers tested Einstein’s prediction during a solar eclipse and proved that the physicist was right.
general relativity predicts the existence of black holes in the universe. The black hole – a region in space-time, the gravitational pull is so great that it can not leave even objects moving at the speed of light (the light itself as well). The boundary that separates the black hole from the rest of the world, called the event horizon: everything that is happening inside the event horizon, hidden from the outside observer.
In the period from 1960 to 1975, research in general relativity entered the mainstream of theoretical physics (this period is called the “golden age of general relativity”). It was during the golden age of general relativity, scientists have confirmed that black holes are no longer purely theoretical objects.
During this period, astronomers discovered quasars, pulsars and cosmic microwave background radiation – evidence of the Big Bang and the subsequent expansion of the universe. The end of the golden age is considered to be the discovery of Hawking radiation – radiation process a variety of elementary particles, especially photons black hole.
Albert Einstein developed the general theory of relativity, as a young scientist. He knew that he could not fit his revolutionary theory in the framework of quantum mechanics – quantum mechanics because the interaction of objects in the same space-time, and Einstein’s space itself generates gravity. Nobel laureate madly wanted to unite general relativity and quantum mechanics, to create a “theory of everything.” However, the physico-mathematical theory and to this day is hypothetical.
In order to create a “theory of everything”, it is necessary to unite the four fundamental interactions: the weak nuclear, strong nuclear, electromagnetic and gravitational.
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