justinh

Since the theory of relativity was published by Einstein in the early 1900's we have developed many positive impacts from it, such as global positioining system (GPS), nuclear energy, and it answered many puzzling questions for the public.

** Theory of Relativity ** The theory of relativity was published by Albert Einstein in the early 1900's. He published it in two parts, special relativity was published in 1905 and the general theory of relativity in 1915. He proved that Newton's Laws were correct when objects travel at the speed of light or are moving in a strong gravitational field (Ask an Astronomer). "Where the speed of light is the same for all observers, no matter their relative speed" (SLAC). This theory is where the equation E=mc2 comes from.


 * GPS [[image:GPS.jpg width="192" height="161" align="right" caption="GPS systems work due to the Theory of Relativity"]]** One of the biggest positive impacts of the theory of relativity is global positioning system or GPS. "However, GPS enables not only the Department of Defense, but also the commuter who has just taken a wrong turn and the couple searching for a restaurant" (Arora). "One of the most crucial applications of relativity involves the Global Positioning System, GPS, which wouldn't work at all if we didn't take relativistic effects into account. If you've ever used a GPS receiver, you've benefited directly from Einstein's theory of relativity!" (Ask an Astronomer). Everyday people use global positioning systems to help them get directions from one state to another or even someone's house just across a city, they are beginning to become more and more popular and they never could have worked without the theory of relativity.

Nuclear Energy ** Another big, positive impact that we got out of the theory of relativity is nuclear energy. "Nuclear energy has helped alleviate a portion of our reliance on non-renewable resources for our energy needs. And as those needs increase and our resources are depleted, we will be continually drawn towards the promises nuclear energy has already fulfilled for other parts of the world that have more readily accepted it as a major energy supplier. It is also difficult to imagine the military and combat today without conjuring images of nuclear warheads and nuclear-powered submarines" (Arora). Even though some countries are using nuclear energy in a negative way to develop nuclear warheads, nuclear energy still made a big, positive impact on society as being an alternative energy source when all the non-renewable sources are gone.

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Puzzling Questions ** The theory of relativity also answered question that scientist weren't sure of their cause. "The first thing is that with the theory of relativity scientist could understand how black holes, objects which bend light so much that it cannot even escape, would form. Another thing was that scientist thought there must be another planet in between the sun and Mercury, referred to Vulcan, that affected Mercury's orbit, but after Einstein published the theory of relativity, it justified Mercury's orbit and proved that there was no unvisible planet in between the sun and Mercury" (Ask an Astronomer). At times this questions and phenomenons puzzled scienists but after the publication of the theory of relativity it made it clear the answers and the reasons to such occurences.

There have been many positive impacts that came out of the theory of relativity since it was published that affect past and modern-day society. Some of the biggest and important positive impacts of the theory of relativity are global positioning system, nuclear energy, and the explaniation to questions that puzzled many scientists. And there will prolly be more positive impacts along with negative impacts to come from the theory of relativity in the future that affect daily lives, especially when discovering deeper parts of space is a possibility.

Arora, Hans. "Einsteins Theory of Relativity: Implications Beyond Science? — Science in Society." __Home — Science in Society__. 20 Oct. 2008. 04 Feb. 2009 

//A person can learn about the Theory of Relativity and Einstein. This website also explains the uses of Einstein's Theory of Relativity in everyday life. The website contains lots of credible work and information for anyone to use. A current graduate student at Northwestern University is the author of this article who did much research on this topic. This site is very credible due to the fact that the author is a current MD-PhD canidate at Northwestern University.//

"Curious About Astronomy? The Theory of Relativity." __Curious About Astronomy? Ask an Astronomer__. 21 Mar. 2008. 4 Feb. 2009 [|

//This site gives a lot of good, credible information about the theory of relativity. This site is good if you don't really understand it well because it does a good job of explaining it. And if you still don't understand you can ask the people who maintain any question that you might have and they will answer them for you. This site's work is credible because the creators and maintainers of the site are volunteers at the Astronomy Department at Cornell University.//

"Theory: Special Relativity (SLAC VVC)." __SLAC Public Website Server__. 31 Oct. 2008. 4 Feb. 2009 [|

//The theory of relativity is broken into two parts and this site is all about the one part, special relativity. This site gives all you need to know about the special relativity part of the theory of relativity. This site is credible because it was created and maintained by Stanford University and was updated recently so the information is up to date.//

