melindac

= = =**The Theory of Relativity **=


 * //Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity currently impacts socitey, science as a whole, and black holes.//**



Background Information
Before Einstein, people considered time as an absolute measurement. He looked at time in a way no one else had done before. He is best known as the creator of the special and general theories of relativity. As a child he did not like traditional forms of teaching. He learned to teach himself almost everything. He withdrew from school at age 15. A year later, he went to the Swill National Polytechnic secondary school. He did not like their teaching methods either, and would cut class to study physics on his own. Einstein's third major paper, "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" contained what is now known as the special theory of relativity. It helped many scientists understand the nature of matter and radiation, and also how they interacted in the world. It took Einstein ten years to make this theory all together. In the end, he came to find that all measurements of space and time depend on the judgements of if two distant events occur simultaniously. After he finished this theory, he moved on to challenge himself once again by making the general theory of relativity. It emphasized the thoery of equivalence. Many were skeptical at first of the theory, but he soon proved everyone wrong. In his theory, he predicted that when starlight was in the vicinity of a massive body, like the sun, it would bend. It was proven true during a total eclipse of the sun in 1919 and it became famous.

Society
Albert Einstein has changed society with his theory of relativity in an endless number of ways. His applications to nuclear energy production and syncronization of the global positioning system (GPS) satellites around the earth show how his theory of relativity affects our everyday lives. Nuclear energy has helped society not rely so much on non-renewable energy sources. The theory has also helped the military with their nuclear war heads and nuclear powered submarines because both these technologies rely on relativity through GPS. GPS can help in the most major or minor of situations, from directions to the movies to a commuter that may have taken a wrong turn.



Sceince
One of Einstein's major contributions to science, is what seems to be a simple equation; E = mc2. He created the equation in 1905, when he worte a paper called, "Does the inertia of a body depend on it's energy-content?". In words it means energy equals mass times the speed of light squared. He created new branches in physics, and revolutionized astronomy and philosophy. Although other people before him came up with similar theories, he was first to declare it a general principal, a consequence of the symmetries of space and time.



Black Holes
The idea of black holes was made through Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity. He first came up with the idea in 1783. Einstein's theory helped explain the very complicated black hole. After he performed several observations, the idea made much better sense to him, and he had figured it out. Black holes bend light to a specific point where nothing can escape. He also showed how gravity warps the space-time continuum and does not pull objects down but actually follows a straight path that appears curved.



Work Cited
"Albert Einstein." __Oracle ThinkQuest Library__. 5 Feb. 2009 

I chose to use this website because it was very easy to comprehend. It was interactive and visually appealing. It helped me understand the theory, with out be extremely complex.

"Einstein’s Theory of Relativity: Implications Beyond Science? — Science in Society." __Home — Science in Society__. 5 Feb. 2009

.

I chose to use this site because it helped me to understand how Einstein's theory of relativity changed science. It gave me a description of the equation E=mc2. The equation has played a huge role in the theory.

"Introduction to relativity and 20th century physics." __thebigview.com - Pondering the Big Questions__. 5 Feb. 2009

.

I chose to use this site because it not only gave me a great description of the theory of relativity, also provided background information on it, which helped me to understand the theory.

"Theory: Special Relativity (SLAC VVC)." __SLAC Public Website Server__. 5 Feb. 2009 http://www2.slac.stanford.edu/.

On this site a person could find a lot of great information on the two types of relativity. It explains in depth the theory of relativity. It explains every little detail of the theory. It is a credible source because it is through Stanford University.