| General Relativity | ||
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In 1905 Einstein published the theory of
Special Relativity which modified the idea of instantaneous action at a
distance since nothing could travel faster than the speed of light. This
modification however did not account for gravity and as such an
equivalent reassessment of gravity was needed. This came in 1916 with
the publication of Einstein's theory of General relativity.
The main declaration of General Relativity is that a reference accelerated frame is equivalent to one in a gravitational field. This is illustrated in the following image:
The universe is shaped by the mass it contains and as such an accelerating reference frame feels the same as sliding down the dimple in space-time created by mass. The following simplified image illustrates the effect of mass on "flat space."
This idea of mass bending space is put more eloquently in the following quote from Hans von Baeyer: “an invisible stream flowing ever onward, bending in response to objects in it s path, carrying everything in the universe along its twists and turns” In and of themselves the above described findings from General Relativity are fascinating pieces of physics but they are only the foundation upon which this theory makes further prediction, namely gravitational waves. Accelerated charges produce electromagnetic waves. From the theory of General Relativity it can be shown that accelerated masses emit gravitational waves and the symmetries of the universe continue to amaze and astound. Interestingly, Einstein had ever further ideas on the symmetries between accelerated charge and mass, this is illustrated by the following quote from and Einstein and it interpretation by Ahmet Gorgun. “I arrived at the interesting result that gravitational waves do not exist, though they had been assumed a certainty to the first approximation. This shows that the non-linear general relativistic field equations can tell us more or, rather, limit us more than we have believed up to now.” -Einstein “Gravitational Waves have nothing do to with General Theory of Relativity. It is one of Einstein's wild speculations based on the assumption that electric charge and Newtonian mass are interchangeable.” -Ahmet Gorgun
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