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Theory of relativity

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Albert Einstein

Between 1907 and 1915

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<div>It is uncommon knowledge  to know why we orbit our sun in a vacuum, or how light cannot escape a black hole, but the concepts given to us by Einstein's Theory(s) of Relativity gives us be best insight on explaining these amazing powers of this universe. Special relativity states that laws of physics are the equal  for all non-accelerating observers, and that the speed of light is constant. General relativity states that The larger the object is, the larger its distortion in space time which is what we call as gravity. His theories of special and general relativities correlate in that it explains the effects and differences between stationary bodies and bodies in motion. It also explains how light is affected by gravity via gravitational lensing, which gravity's ability to bend light. Without such an incredible idea we would be forever ignorant about such things, and would be severely detrimental to our growth as a species. My proposal to preserve this concept, apart from it allowing us to travel in space, is because it is, undoubtedly, one of the greatest human achievements of all time. It is the foundation by which all explanations in physics and cosmology are based on, and thus, allows us to further our knowledge of the vast universe around us. I believe that we must preserve this because it is everything in our universe operates upon given a few known exceptions, and gives a foothold into our continued progress towards discovery. Ultimately, however, we don't need to preserve it, because it will always exist.</div>
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In the age of curiosity and trying to understand the cosmos, a singular individual spearheaded physics and cosmology, and every major science of the time, and would forever change the way we view the universe. This individual was named Albert Einstein, a theoretical physicist. His ideas revolutionized the way we explain how things work, and helped answer some of the big questions. His ideas  and theories went along with many others such as Robert Oppenheimer and Niels Bohr. Many were driven, given the rapid evolution of technology, to find out and discover everything they could, as quickly as they could because they were finally able to.

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For it's time, it's significance is beyond it. It was theoretical physics that accounted for many unknowns in the universe that wouldn't be discovered until after Einstein's death. It had predicted a great many concepts such as black holes and dark matter, the things that make up most of the gravity in our universe. He was ahead of his time, and this theory leap-frogged us into proving it. We looked for the black holes and the dark matter, and there they are. Theoretical physics, cosmology, astrophysics, the sciences most people have a hard time understanding, and all the others as well, operate upon this foundation, so it's importance is beyond understanding. Allaboutscience.org best summarizes it's importance after many occurrences where the general theory could be applied, "Einstein’s theories of both special and general relativity have been confirmed to be accurate to a very high degree over recent years, and the data has been shown to corroborate many key predictions...general relativity proved itself accurate to better than a trillionth of a percent precision, thus making it one of the best confirmed principles in all of physics."

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Upon it's birth, the theory was met with varied beliefs. Many thought it was in correct because it conflicted with other theories at the time, but the majority grew to accept it very quickly. The more study that was done with it as the basis, the more it made sense to the rest of the scientific community. And though Einstein is the accepted creator of this theory, many others are credited to its culmination, such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Michelson">Albert Michelson</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hendrik_Lorentz">Hendrik Lorentz</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Poincar%C3%A9">Henri Poincaré</a>. This was a huge undertaking, to explain the fundamental laws of the universe, and to say with almost certainty that this what the basic laws of the universe operate on would be a bold statement. So of course many disbelieved at first, but as we know now it is very widely accepted. It best explained space-time in relation to gravity, a Space.com put it, " [he] worked out the equations for his general theory of relativity, Einstein realized that massive objects caused a distortion in space-time. Imagine setting a large body in the center of a trampoline. The body would press down into the fabric, causing it to dimple. A marble rolled around the edge would spiral inward toward the body, pulled in much the same way that the gravity of a planet pulls at rocks in space"

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It is so widely accepted, in fact, that you will not find a single educated adult who does not know E = mc2, Energy equals mass times the speed of light squared, as it's and explanation to special relativity. In fact, most young people today could even recognize it and who it's accredited to, it is that relevant and important to our culture. And though it was met with mixed acceptances upon its creation, it is almost universally accepted today. This, however, does not mean that everyone understands it. Typically it's explanation is left to advanced high school physics and higher level learning.

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To me it is a grand idea to be in wonder of. No one ever thinks about how even though we're floating on a huge rock in the vacuum of space, we're affected by an invisible, immeasurable force, thousands of miles away, and that we're also being affected by the rock we're standing on itself. We call this gravity, and we know it exists because we know the difference between it's pull, and no gravity at all. Or that light takes eight minutes to travel from the sun to us, and yet that speed at which it travels is incomprehendable. I've always had a huge wonder of astrophysics and what lies beyond this planet, beyond what we know and are comfortable with. When we discovered the Higgs-Boson, aka the God Particle, earlier this year no one could care less about it's importance and it's relevance to even the basic laws of physics. But for those reading I'll summarize. It is the particle, or set of particles, that give everything mass and essentially, existence. Thus, giving something mass essentially gives it gravity and a foot-hold in our dimension/reality. The science behind it is very in-depth and complicated. Interestingly, Einstein stated that it is impossible for anything to travel faster than the speed of light, but when we smashed the atoms at the The Hadron Collider and Detector at Fermilab to find the Higgs Boson, we found it to be traveling a bit faster than light. We don't know how to classify this in the known laws of physics, but I believe we're stepping into a whole new universe of science, almost literally.

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J<a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=maxwell%27s%20electromagnetic%20theory&amp;source=web&amp;cd=2&amp;cad=rja&amp;ved=0CDwQFjAB&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FJames_Clerk_Maxwell&amp;ei=1byzUOLGOc-s0AGj7YHICA&amp;usg=AFQjCNEhnZ2Hy0Jkra3niTYhOS2kL8bc2w">ames Clerk Maxwell</a> was working in parallel to Einstein in trying to explain the framework of such laws, but only came as far as showing a relation between energy and mass.  Thebigview.com gives a good synopsis on Einstein's E=MC2 versus Maxwell's E/c2, "Einstein derived this relation in an attempt to reconcile Maxwell's electromagnetic theory with the conservation of energy and momentum. Maxwell said that light carries a momentum, which is to say that a wave carries an amount of energy. Due to the principle of conservation of momentum, if a body emits energy in the form of radiation, the body loses an equivalent amount of mass that is given by E/c². This describes the relation between energy and mass. "

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The most significant thing future generations should be aware of is that first is that it is almost the law on how our universe operates, and secondly, that there are things in our universe that this law/theory does not apply to. Future generations must work off what we discover by using this theory.

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This work has become one of the greatest testaments to human knowledge and curiosity. It has given us great insight into what exists and more importantly, how it exists. It the fundamental basis for the guidelines the universe and relative physics operate by. There is still so much to learn, but Einstein gave us a way to help point us in the right direction. And it's because of these things that we must preserve it, for our culture at least.

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The things that helped me most was just having a curious mind and an openness to the things I didn't know. There is a multitude of information out there on any given subject, so when you find something of interest, pursue it and learn all you can about it, learn all its aspects and what have been taken from it.

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Redd, Nola T. "Einstein's Theory of General Relativity." <em>Space.com</em>. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2012.

Knierim, Thomas. "Special and General Relativity Theory (Albert Einstein)." <em>Special and General Relativity Theory (Albert Einstein)</em>. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2012. &lt;http://www.thebigview.com/spacetime/relativity.html&gt;.

"Theory Of Relativity." <em>AllAboutScience.org</em>. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2012. &lt;http://www.allaboutscience.org/theory-of-relativity.htm&gt;.

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