If your rocket was completely still in the middle of space, you and the ball would be weightless. That uniform acceleration has exactly the same effect as gravity.Īnd the opposite is true too. Drop the ball and it will fall just like it would on Earth. If you're in a stationary elevator and you drop a ball, the ball will fall to the floor of the lift at 9.8 metres per second per second - that's the rate of gravitational acceleration for everything that falls to Earth.īut exactly the same thing would happen if you were in a rocket that was accelerating upwards through space at 9.8 metres per second per second. General relativity is full of mind-bending concepts like warped spacetime and time dilation.īut it is really just Einstein's thorough explanation of what causes gravity, and how gravity affects matter, light and time.Įinstein had an issue with gravity. But ask them to explain general relativity and things are likely to get a little quiet.Īnd for good reason. It would cement his place at the top of the pantheon of scientific minds, and see him transformed into a modern icon.īut what is general relativity, and why does it matter?Īsk someone on the street about Einstein and they'll likely say the word genius, maybe rattle off E=mc 2, and possibly talk about the nuclear bomb. A century ago, physicist Albert Einstein unveiled a theory that would change the world - general relativity.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |