Einstein's theory of relativity in simple words is a formula. Einstein's General Theory of Relativity: Four Steps Taken by a Genius

Big open secret

Alexander Grishaev, fragment from the article “ Spills and wicks of universal gravity»

“The British don’t clean their guns with bricks: let them not clean ours either, otherwise, God forbid war, they’re not good for shooting...” – N. Leskov.

8 parabolic mirrors of the ADU-1000 receiving and transmitting antenna complex are part of the Pluto receiving complex of the Center for Deep Space Communications...

In the early years of deep space exploration, a number of Soviet and American interplanetary stations were sadly lost. Even if the launch took place without failures, as experts say, “in normal mode”, all systems worked normally, all pre-provisioned orbit adjustments proceeded normally, communication with the devices was unexpectedly interrupted.

It got to the point that, during the next “window” favorable for launching, identical devices with the same program were launched in batches, one after the other - in the hope that at least one could be brought to a victorious end. But - where is it! There was a certain reason that cut off the connection when approaching the planets, which did not give concessions.

Of course, they kept quiet about this. The foolish public was informed that the station passed at a distance of, say, 120 thousand kilometers from the planet. The tone of these messages was so cheerful that one could not help thinking: “The guys are shooting! One hundred and twenty thousand is not bad. I could have done it at three hundred thousand! You give new, more accurate launches!” No one had any idea about the intensity of the drama - that the pundits were up to something didn't understand point blank.

In the end, we decided to try this. The signal used to communicate, let it be known, has long been represented in the form of waves - radio waves. The easiest way to imagine what these waves are is the “domino effect”. The communication signal spreads through space like a wave of falling dominoes.

The speed of wave propagation depends on the speed at which each individual domino falls, and since all dominoes are the same and fall in equal time, the speed of the wave is a constant value. The distance between the dominoes is called by physicists "wavelength".

Example of a wave - “domino effect”

Now let's assume that we have a celestial body (let's call it Venus), marked in this figure with a red scribble. Let's say that if we push the initial domino, then each subsequent domino will fall onto the next one in one second. If exactly 100 dominoes are placed from us to Venus, the wave will reach it after all 100 dominoes fall in sequence, spending one second each. In total, the wave from us will reach Venus in 100 seconds.

This is the case if Venus stands still. What if Venus doesn’t stand still? Let's say, while 100 dominoes are falling, our Venus manages to “crawl away” to a distance equal to the distance between several dominoes (several wavelengths), what will happen then?

Academicians decided that what if the wave catches up with Venus according to the very law that primary schoolchildren use in problems like: “From point A the train leaves at speed A km/hour, and from the point B at the same time a pedestrian exits at a speed b in the same direction, how long will it take for the train to catch up with the pedestrian?”

When the academics realized that they needed to solve such a simple problem for younger schoolchildren, things began to improve. If it were not for this ingenuity, we would not have seen the outstanding achievements of interplanetary astronautics.

And what is so cunning here, the inexperienced Dunno in the sciences will throw up his hands?! And on the contrary, Znayka, experienced in the sciences, will cry out: guard, stop the rogue, this is pseudoscience! According to real, correct science, correctly, this problem should be solved completely differently! After all, we are not dealing with some slow-moving fox-pedist ships, but with a signal rushing after Venus at the speed of light, which, no matter how fast you or Venus run, still catches up with you at the speed of light! Moreover, if you rush towards him, you will not meet him faster!

Principles of relativity

“It’s like this,” Dunno will exclaim, “it turns out that if from the point B to me, who is in the spaceship at the point A They will let you know that they have a dangerous epidemic on board, for which I have a remedy; it is useless for me to turn around to meet them, because... We still won’t meet earlier if the spaceship sent to me is moving at the speed of light? And this means that I can, with a clear conscience, continue my journey to the point C to deliver a load of diapers for the monkeys due to be born next month?

“Exactly,” Znayka will answer you, “if you were on a bicycle, then you would need to ride as the dotted arrow shows - towards the car that is leaving for you.” But, if a light-speed vehicle is moving towards you, then whether you move towards it or move away from it, or stay in place, does not matter - The meeting time cannot be changed.

“How is it possible,” Dunno will return to our dominoes, “will the dominoes begin to fall faster?” It won’t help - it will just be a problem about Achilles catching up with a turtle, no matter how fast Achilles runs, it will still take him some time to cover the additional distance covered by the turtle.

No, everything is cooler here - if a ray of light catches up with you, then you, moving, stretch the space. Place the same dominoes on a rubber band and pull it - the red cross on it will move, but the dominoes will also move, the distance between the dominoes increases, i.e. The wavelength increases, and thus there will be the same number of dominoes between you and the starting point of the wave at all times. Wow!

It was I who popularly outlined the foundations of Einstein's Theories of Relativity, the only correct, scientific theory, according to which the passage of a sublight signal should be considered, including when calculating communication modes with interplanetary probes.

Let us sharpen one point: in relativistic theories (and there are two of them: ONE HUNDRED– special theory of relativity and GTO– general theory of relativity) the speed of light is absolute and cannot be exceeded in any way. And one useful term for the effect of increasing the distance between the knuckles is called " Doppler effect» – the effect of increasing the wavelength if the wave follows a moving object, and the effect of shortening the wavelength if the object is moving towards the wave.

So the academicians believed according to the only correct theory, only the probes left for milk. Meanwhile, in the 60s of the 20th century, a number of countries produced Venus radar. With radar detection of Venus, this postulate of relativistic addition of velocities can be verified.

American B.J. Wallace in 1969, in the article “Radar verification of the relative speed of light in space,” he analyzed eight radar observations of Venus published in 1961. The analysis convinced him that the speed of the radio beam ( contrary to the theory of relativity) is added algebraically to the Earth's rotation speed. Subsequently, he had problems publishing materials on this topic.

Let us list the articles devoted to the mentioned experiments:

1. V.A. Kotelnikov et al. “Radar installation used in the radar of Venus in 1961.” Radio engineering and electronics, 7, 11 (1962) 1851.

2. V.A. Kotelnikov et al. “Radar results of Venus in 1961” Ibid., page 1860.

3. V.A. Morozov, Z.G. Trunova “Weak signal analyzer used in the radar of Venus in 1961.” Ibid., page 1880.

Conclusions, which were formulated in the third article, are understandable even to Dunno, who has understood the theory of falling dominoes, which is stated here at the beginning.

In the last article, in the part where they described the conditions for detecting a signal reflected from Venus, there was the following phrase: “ The narrowband component is understood as the component of the echo signal corresponding to the reflection from a stationary point reflector...»

Here the “narrowband component” is the detected component of the signal returning from Venus, and it is detected if Venus is considered ... motionless! Those. the guys didn't write directly that Doppler effect is not detected, they instead wrote that the signal is recognized by the receiver only if the movement of Venus in the same direction as the signal is not taken into account, i.e. when the Doppler effect is zero according to any theory, but since Venus was moving, then the effect of wave lengthening did not take place, which was prescribed by the theory of relativity.

To the great sadness of the theory of relativity, Venus did not stretch space, and the “dominoes” were stacked much more by the time the signal arrived at Venus than at the time of its launch from Earth. Venus, like Achilles' tortoise, managed to crawl away from the steps of the waves catching up with her at the speed of light.

Obviously, American researchers did the same, as evidenced by the above-mentioned case with Wallace, who was not allowed to publish an article on the interpretation of the results obtained during the scanning of Venus. So the commissions to combat pseudoscience functioned regularly not only in the totalitarian Soviet Union.

By the way, the lengthening of waves, as we found out, according to theory should indicate the distance of the space object from the observer, and it is called redshift, and this very redshift, discovered by Hubble in 1929, underlies the cosmogonic theory of the Big Bang.

Location of Venus showed absence this very offsets, and from then on, from the moment of the successful results of the location of Venus, this theory - the theory of the Big Bang - as well as the hypotheses of “black holes” and other relativistic nonsense, pass into the category of science fiction. Science fiction, for which they give Nobel Prizes not in literature, but in physics!!! Wonderful are your works, Lord!

P.S. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the SRT and the coinciding 90th anniversary of the General Relativity, it was discovered that neither one nor the other theory was experimentally confirmed! On the occasion of the anniversary, the project “Gravity Probe B (GP-B) ” worth 760 million dollars, which was supposed to provide at least one confirmation of these ridiculous theories, but it all ended in great embarrassment. The next article is just about this...

Einstein's OTO: “and the king is naked!”

“In June 2004, the UN General Assembly decided to proclaim 2005 the International Year of Physics. The Assembly invited UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) to organize activities for the celebration of the Year in cooperation with physics societies and other interested groups around the world...”– Message from the UN Bulletin

Of course! – Next year marks the 100th anniversary of the Special Theory of Relativity ( ONE HUNDRED), 90 years – General Theory of Relativity ( GTO) - a hundred years of continuous triumph of new physics, which overthrew the archaic Newtonian physics from its pedestal, so officials from the UN believed, anticipating next year's celebrations and honoring of the greatest genius of all times and peoples, as well as his followers.

But the followers knew better than others that the “brilliant” theories had not shown themselves in any way for almost a hundred years: no predictions of new phenomena were made on their basis and no explanations were made for those already discovered, but not explained by classical Newtonian physics. Nothing at all, NOTHING!

General Relativity did not have a single experimental confirmation!

All that was known was that the theory was brilliant, but no one knew what the point of it was. Well, yes, she regularly fed her with promises and breakfasts, for which enormous amounts of money were paid, and at the end of the day - science fiction novels about black holes, for which Nobel Prizes were given not in literature, but in physics, colliders were built, one after another, one larger than the other, gravitational interferometers multiplied all over the world, in which, to paraphrase Confucius, in “dark matter” they looked for a black cat, which, moreover, was not there, and no one had even seen the “dark matter” itself.

Therefore, in April 2004, a most ambitious project was launched, which was carefully prepared for about forty years and for the final stage of which 760 million dollars were allocated - "Gravity Probe B (GP-B)". Gravity test B was supposed to wind, no more and no less, Einsteinian space-time, in the amount of 6.6 arc seconds, on precision gyroscopes (that is, tops), in approximately a year of flight - exactly for the great anniversary.

Immediately after the launch, we were waiting for victory reports, in the spirit of “His Excellency’s Adjutant” - the “letter” followed the Nth kilometer: “The first arc second of space-time has been successfully wound.” But the victorious reports for which the believers in the most grandiose 20th century scam, somehow everything didn’t follow.

And without victorious reports, what the hell is an anniversary - crowds of enemies of the most progressive teaching with pens and calculators at the ready are just waiting to spit on the great teaching of Einstein. So they let me down "International Year of Physics" on the brakes - he passed quietly and unnoticed.

There were no victorious reports immediately after the completion of the mission, in August of the anniversary year: there was only a message that everything was going well, the brilliant theory was confirmed, but we will process the results a little, and in exactly a year there will be an exact answer. There was no answer even after a year or two. In the end, they promised to finalize the results by March 2010.

And where is that result?! Having googled the Internet, I found this interesting note in the LiveJournal of one blogger:

Gravity Probe B (GP-B) – bytraces$760 million. $

So - modern physics does not doubt GTR, it would seem, why then is there a need for an experiment worth 760 million dollars aimed at confirming the effects of GTR?

After all, this is nonsense - it’s the same as spending almost a billion, for example, to confirm Archimedes’ law. However, judging by the results of the experiment, this money was not directed at the experiment, the money was spent on PR.

The experiment was carried out using a satellite launched on April 20, 2004, equipped with equipment to measure the Lense-Thirring effect (as a direct consequence of general relativity). Satellite Gravity Probe B carried on board the most accurate gyroscopes in the world at that time. The experimental design is described quite well on Wikpedia.

Already during the period of data collection, questions began to arise regarding the experimental design and the accuracy of the equipment. After all, despite the huge budget, equipment designed to measure ultrafine effects has never been tested in space. During the data collection, vibrations were revealed due to the boiling of helium in the dewar, there were unexpected stops of the gyros with subsequent spinning due to failures in the electronics under the influence of energetic cosmic particles; There were computer failures and losses of “science data” arrays, and the most significant problem turned out to be the “polhode” effect.

Concept "polhode" Its roots go back to the 18th century, when the outstanding mathematician and astronomer Leonhard Euler obtained a system of equations for the free motion of solid bodies. In particular, Euler and his contemporaries (D'Alembert, Lagrange) investigated fluctuations (very small) in measurements of the Earth's latitude, which apparently occurred due to fluctuations of the Earth relative to the axis of rotation (polar axis) ...

GP-B gyroscopes, listed in the Guinness Book as the most spherical objects ever made by human hands. The sphere is made of quartz glass and coated with a thin film of superconducting niobium. Quartz surfaces are polished to the atomic level.

Following the discussion of axial precession, you have the right to ask a direct question: why do GP-B gyroscopes, listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most spherical objects, also exhibit axial precession? Indeed, in a completely spherical and homogeneous body, in which all three main axes of inertia are identical, the polhode period around any of these axes would be infinitely large and for all practical purposes it would not exist.

However, GP-B rotors are not “perfect” spheres. The spherical shape and homogeneity of the fused quartz substrate make it possible to balance the moments of inertia relative to the axes to one part in a million - this is already enough to require taking into account the polholde period of the rotor and fixing the track along which the end of the rotor axis will move.

All this was expected. Before the satellite launch, the behavior of GP-B rotors was simulated. But still the prevailing consensus was that, since the rotors were almost ideal and almost uniform, they would give a very small amplitude of the polhode track and such a long period that the polhode rotation of the axis would not change significantly throughout the experiment.

However, contrary to good forecasts, GP-B rotors in real life made it possible to see significant axial precession. Given the almost perfectly spherical geometry and homogeneous composition of the rotors, there are two possibilities:

– internal decomposition of energy;

– external influence with a constant frequency.

It turns out that a combination of the two works. Although the rotor is symmetrical, like the Earth described above, the gyroscope is still elastic and protrudes at the equator by about 10 nm. Since the axis of rotation drifts, the convexity of the surface of the body also drifts. Due to small defects in the rotor structure and local boundary defects between the rotor core material and its niobium coating, rotational energy can be dissipated internally. This causes the drift path to change without changing the overall angular momentum (sort of like when a raw egg spins).

If the effects predicted by general relativity actually manifest themselves, then for each year Gravity Probe B in orbit, the rotation axes of its gyroscopes should deviate by 6.6 arcseconds and 42 arcseconds, respectively

Two of the gyros in 11 months due to this effect rotated several tens of degrees, because were spun along the axis of minimum inertia.

As a result, gyroscopes designed to measure milliseconds angular arc, were exposed to unplanned effects and errors of up to several tens of degrees! In fact it was mission failure, however, the results were simply hushed up. If the final results of the mission were initially planned to be announced at the end of 2007, then they were postponed to September 2008, and then completely to March 2010.

As Francis Everitt cheerfully reported, “Due to the interaction of electric charges “frozen” into gyroscopes and the walls of their chambers (the patch effect), and the previously unaccounted effects of reading readings, which have not yet been completely excluded from the obtained data, the measurement accuracy at this stage is limited to 0.1 arc seconds, which makes it possible to confirm the effect of geodetic precession (6.606 arc seconds per year) with an accuracy of better than 1% (6.606 arc seconds per year), but not yet makes it possible to isolate and verify the phenomenon of dragging of the inertial frame of reference (0.039 arc seconds per year). Intensive work is underway to calculate and extract measurement noise..."

I mean, how I commented on this statement ZZCW : “from tens of degrees, tens of degrees are subtracted and angular milliseconds remain, with one percent accuracy (and then the declared accuracy will be even higher, because for complete communism the Lense-Thirring effect would have to be confirmed) corresponding to the key effect of General Relativity...”

No wonder that NASA refused award further millions in grants to Stanford for an 18-month program to "further improve data analysis" that was planned for the period October 2008 to March 2010.

Scientists who want to get RAW(raw data) for independent confirmation, were surprised to find that instead RAW and sources NSSDC they are given only “second-level data.” "Level two" means that "the data has been lightly processed..."

As a result, the Stanford team, deprived of funding, published a final report on February 5th, which reads:

After subtracting corrections for the solar geodetic effect (+7 marc-s/yr) and the proper motion of the guide star (+28 ± 1 marc-s/yr), the result is −6.673 ± 97 marc-s/yr, to be compared with the predicted −6,606 marc-s/yr of General Relativity

This is the opinion of a blogger unknown to me, whose opinion we will consider to be the voice of the boy who shouted: “ And the king is naked!»

And now we will cite the statements of very competent specialists, whose qualifications are difficult to challenge.

Nikolay Levashov “The theory of relativity is a false foundation of physics”

Nikolay Levashov “Einstein’s theory, astrophysics, hushed experiments”

More details and a variety of information about events taking place in Russia, Ukraine and other countries of our beautiful planet can be obtained at Internet Conferences, constantly held on the website “Keys of Knowledge”. All Conferences are open and completely free. We invite everyone who wakes up and is interested...

Einstein's theory of relativity is based on the statement that the determination of the movement of the first body is possible solely due to the movement of another body. This conclusion has become fundamental in the four-dimensional space-time continuum and its awareness. Which, when considering time and three dimensions, have the same basis.

Special theory of relativity, discovered in 1905 and studied to a greater extent at school, has a framework that ends only with a description of what is happening, from the side of observation, which is in uniform relative motion. Which led to several important consequences:

1 For each observer, the speed of light is constant.

2 The greater the speed, the greater the mass of the body; this is felt more strongly at the speed of light.

3 Energy-E and mass-m are equal and equivalent to each other, from which the formula follows in which c- will be the speed of light.
E = mс2
From this formula it follows that mass becomes energy, less mass leads to more energy.

4 At higher speeds, compression of the body occurs (Lorentz-Fitzgerald compression).

5 Considering an observer at rest and a moving object, for the second one time will go slower. This theory, completed in 1915, is suitable for an observer who is in accelerating motion. As gravity and space have shown. Following from this, it can be assumed that space is curved due to the presence of matter in it, thereby forming gravitational fields. It turns out that the property of space is gravity. Interestingly, the gravitational field bends light, which is where black holes appeared.

Note: If you are interested in Archeology (http://arheologija.ru/), then just follow the link to an interesting site that will tell you not only about excavations, artifacts, etc., but also share the latest news.

The figure shows examples of Einstein's theory.

Under A depicts an observer looking at cars moving at different speeds. But the red car is moving faster than the blue car, which means that the speed of light relative to it will be absolute.

Under IN the light emanating from the headlights is considered, which, despite the obvious difference in the speeds of the cars, will be the same.

Under WITH a nuclear explosion is shown which proves that E energy = T mass. Or E = mс2.

Under D It can be seen from the figure that less mass gives more energy, while the body is compressed.

Under E change of time in space due to Mu mesons. Time flows slower in space than on earth.

Eat theory of relativity for dummies which is briefly shown in the video:

A very interesting fact about the theory of relativity, discovered by modern scientists in 2014, but remains a mystery.

By this point in Einstein's life, his ill-concealed disdain for his German roots and Germany's authoritarian teaching methods had already taken its toll, and he had been kicked out of high school, so he moved to Zurich in hopes of attending the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH).

But first, Einstein decided to spend a year of preparation at a school in the neighboring town of Aarau. At this point, he soon found himself wondering what it would be like to run next to a beam of light.

Einstein had already learned in physics class what a beam of light was: a set of oscillating electric and magnetic fields moving at 300,000 kilometers per second, the measured speed of light. If he ran nearby at the same speed, Einstein realized, he could see many oscillating electric and magnetic fields next to him, as if frozen in space.

But this was impossible. First, stationary fields would violate Maxwell's equations, the mathematical laws that underlie everything physicists knew about electricity, magnetism, and light. These laws were (and still are) quite strict: any waves in these fields must travel at the speed of light and cannot stand still, no exceptions.

Worse, stationary fields did not fit with the principle of relativity, which had been known to physicists since the days of Galileo and Newton in the 17th century. Essentially, the principle of relativity says that the laws of physics cannot depend on how fast you are moving: you can only measure the speed of one object relative to another.

But when Einstein applied this principle to his thought experiment, a contradiction arose: relativity dictated that anything he could see when moving near a beam of light, including stationary fields, must be something mundane that physicists could create in the laboratory. But no one has ever observed this.

This problem would haunt Einstein for another 10 years, as he studied and worked at ETH and moved on to the Swiss capital of Bern, where he would become an examiner at the Swiss patent office. It is there that he will resolve the paradox once and for all.

1904: Measuring light from a moving train

It wasn't easy. Einstein tried every solution he could think of, but nothing worked. Almost in despair, he began to think about a simple, yet radical solution. Perhaps Maxwell's equations worked for everything, he thought, but the speed of light had always been constant.

In other words, when you see a beam of light fly by, it doesn't matter whether its source is moving towards you, away from you, away from you, or anywhere else, and it doesn't matter how fast its source is moving. The speed of light that you measure will always be 300,000 kilometers per second. Among other things, this meant that Einstein would never see stationary oscillating fields, since he would never be able to catch a beam of light.

This was the only way Einstein saw to reconcile Maxwell's equations with the principle of relativity. At first glance, however, this solution had its own fatal flaw. He later explained it with another thought experiment: imagine a beam that is fired along a railway embankment while a train passes by in the same direction at, say, 3000 kilometers per second.

Someone standing near the embankment would have to measure the speed of the light beam and get the standard number of 300,000 kilometers per second. But someone on a train will see light moving at 297,000 kilometers per second. If the speed of light is not constant, Maxwell's equation inside the carriage should look different, Einstein concluded, and then the principle of relativity would be violated.

This apparent contradiction gave Einstein pause for almost a year. But then, one fine morning in May 1905, he was walking to work with his best friend Michel Besso, an engineer he had known since his student days in Zurich. The two men talked about Einstein's dilemma, as they always did. And suddenly Einstein saw the solution. He worked on it all night, and when they met the next morning, Einstein said to Besso: “Thank you. I completely solved the problem."

May 1905: Lightning strikes a moving train

Einstein's revelation was that observers in relative motion perceive time differently: it is quite possible for two events to occur simultaneously from the point of view of one observer, but at different times from the point of view of another. And both observers will be right.

Einstein later illustrated his point with another thought experiment. Imagine that an observer is again standing next to the railway and a train is rushing past him. At the moment when the central point of the train passes the observer, lightning strikes each end of the train. Since lightning strikes at the same distance from the observer, their light enters his eyes at the same time. It would be fair to say that lightning strikes simultaneously.

Meanwhile, another observer sits exactly in the center of the train. From his point of view, the light from two lightning strikes travels the same distance and the speed of light will be the same in any direction. But because the train is moving, the light coming from the rear lightning has to travel a greater distance, so it arrives at the observer a few moments later than the light from the beginning. Since the light pulses arrive at different times, we can conclude that the lightning strikes are not simultaneous - one occurs faster.

Einstein realized that it is precisely this simultaneity that is relative. And once you accept this, the strange effects we now associate with relativity are resolved by simple algebra.

Einstein feverishly wrote down his thoughts and submitted his work for publication. The title was “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies,” and it reflected Einstein’s attempt to connect Maxwell’s equations with the principle of relativity. Besso received special thanks.

September 1905: mass and energy

This first work, however, was not the last. Einstein was obsessed with relativity until the summer of 1905, and in September he submitted a second paper for publication, this time in retrospect.

It was based on another thought experiment. Imagine an object at rest, he said. Now imagine that it simultaneously emits two identical pulses of light in opposite directions. The object will remain in place, but since each pulse carries away a certain amount of energy, the energy contained in the object will decrease.

Now, Einstein wrote, what would this process look like to a moving observer? From his point of view, the object will simply continue to move in a straight line while the two pulses fly away. But even if the speed of the two pulses remains the same - the speed of light - their energies will be different. An impulse that moves forward in the direction of travel will have higher energy than one that moves in the opposite direction.

Adding a little algebra, Einstein showed that for this to be consistent, the object must not only lose energy when sending out light pulses, but also mass. Or mass and energy should be interchangeable. Einstein wrote down an equation that connects them. And it became the most famous equation in the history of science: E = mc 2.

The theory of relativity was introduced by Albert Einstein in the early 20th century. What is its essence? Let's consider the main points and describe the TOE in clear language.

The theory of relativity practically eliminated the inconsistencies and contradictions of 20th century physics, forced a radical change in the idea of ​​the structure of space-time, and was experimentally confirmed in numerous experiments and studies.

Thus, TOE formed the basis of all modern fundamental physical theories. In fact, this is the mother of modern physics!

To begin with, it is worth noting that there are 2 theories of relativity:

• Special theory of relativity (STR) – considers physical processes in uniformly moving objects.
• General theory of relativity (GTR) - describes accelerating objects and explains the origin of such phenomena as gravity and existence.

It is clear that STR appeared earlier and is essentially a part of GTR. Let's talk about her first.

STO in simple words

The theory is based on the principle of relativity, according to which any laws of nature are the same with respect to bodies that are stationary and moving at a constant speed. And from such a seemingly simple thought it follows that the speed of light (300,000 m/s in vacuum) is the same for all bodies.

For example, imagine that you were given a spaceship from the distant future that can fly at great speed. A laser cannon is installed on the bow of the ship, capable of shooting photons forward.

Relative to the ship, such particles fly at the speed of light, but relative to a stationary observer, it would seem they should fly faster, since both speeds are summed up.

However, in reality this does not happen! An outside observer sees photons traveling at 300,000 m/s, as if the speed of the spacecraft had not been added to them.

You need to remember: relative to any body, the speed of light will be a constant value, no matter how fast it moves.

From this follow amazing conclusions such as time dilation, longitudinal contraction and the dependence of body weight on speed. Read more about the most interesting consequences of the Special Theory of Relativity in the article at the link below.

The essence of general relativity (GR)

To understand it better, we need to combine two facts again:

• We live in four-dimensional space

Space and time are manifestations of the same entity called the “space-time continuum.” This is 4-dimensional space-time with coordinate axes x, y, z and t.

We humans are unable to perceive the 4 dimensions equally. In essence, we only see projections of a real four-dimensional object onto space and time.

Interestingly, the theory of relativity does not state that bodies change when they move. 4-dimensional objects always remain unchanged, but with relative movement their projections can change. And we perceive this as time slowing down, size reduction, etc.

• All bodies fall at a constant speed and do not accelerate

Let's do a scary thought experiment. Imagine that you are riding in a closed elevator and are in a state of weightlessness.

This situation could arise only for two reasons: either you are in space, or you are freely falling along with the cabin under the influence of earth's gravity.

Without looking out of the booth, it is absolutely impossible to distinguish between these two cases. It’s just that in one case you fly uniformly, and in the other with acceleration. You'll have to guess!

Perhaps Albert Einstein himself was thinking about an imaginary elevator, and he had one amazing thought: if these two cases cannot be distinguished, then falling due to gravity is also a uniform movement. The motion is simply uniform in four-dimensional space-time, but in the presence of massive bodies (for example,) it is curved and the uniform motion is projected into the three-dimensional space that is usual for us in the form of accelerated motion.

Let's look at another simpler, although not entirely correct, example of the curvature of two-dimensional space.

You can imagine that any massive body creates some kind of figurative funnel underneath it. Then other bodies flying past will not be able to continue their movement in a straight line and will change their trajectory according to the bends of curved space.

By the way, if the body does not have much energy, then its movement may turn out to be closed.

It is worth noting that from the point of view of moving bodies, they continue to move in a straight line, because they do not feel anything that makes them turn. They just ended up in a curved space and, without realizing it, have a non-linear trajectory.

It should be noted that 4 dimensions are bent, including time, so this analogy should be treated with caution.

Thus, in the general theory of relativity, gravity is not a force at all, but only a consequence of the curvature of space-time. At the moment, this theory is a working version of the origin of gravity and is in excellent agreement with experiments.

Surprising consequences of general relativity

Light rays can be bent when flying near massive bodies. Indeed, distant objects have been found in space that “hide” behind others, but light rays bend around them, thanks to which the light reaches us.

It is thanks to Albert Einstein that you can understand where a library or a store is located nearby.

And finally, general relativity predicts the existence of black holes around which gravity is so strong that time simply stops nearby. Therefore, light that falls into a black hole cannot leave it (reflect).

In the center of a black hole, due to colossal gravitational compression, an object with an infinitely high density is formed, and this, it seems, cannot exist.

Thus, general relativity can lead to very contradictory conclusions, in contrast to , which is why the majority of physicists did not accept it completely and continued to look for an alternative.

But she manages to predict many things successfully, for example, a recent sensational discovery confirmed the theory of relativity and made us once again remember the great scientist with his tongue hanging out. If you love science, read WikiScience.

Einstein's theory of relativity has always seemed abstract and incomprehensible to me. Let's try to describe Einstein's theory of relativity in simple words. Imagine being outside in heavy rain with the wind blowing at your back. If you start running fast, raindrops will not fall on your back. The drops will be slower or not reach your back at all, this is a scientifically proven fact, and you can check it yourself in a rainstorm. Now imagine if you turned around and ran against the wind with rain, the drops would hit your clothes and face harder than if you just stood.

Scientists previously thought that light acted like rain in windy weather. They thought that if the Earth moved around the Sun, and the Sun moved around the galaxy, then it would be possible to measure the speed of their movement in space. In their opinion, all they have to do is measure the speed of light and how it changes relative to two bodies.

Scientists did it and found something very strange. The speed of light was the same, no matter what, no matter how the bodies moved and no matter in which direction the measurements were taken.

It was very strange. If we take the situation with a rainstorm, then under normal circumstances the raindrops will affect you more or less depending on your movements. Agree, it would be very strange if a rainstorm blew at your back with equal force, both when running and when stopping.

Scientists have discovered that light does not have the same properties as raindrops or anything else in the universe. No matter how fast you move, and no matter what direction you are heading, the speed of light will always be the same. This is very confusing and only Albert Einstein was able to shed light on this injustice.

Einstein and another scientist, Hendrik Lorentz, figured out that there was only one way to explain how all this could be. This is only possible if time slows down.

Imagine what would happen if time slowed down for you, and you didn't know that you were moving slower. You will feel like everything else is happening faster., everything around you will move, like in a movie in fast forward.

So now let's imagine that you are again in a windy downpour. How is it possible that rain will affect you the same even if you are running? It turns out that if you were trying to run away from the rain, then your time would slow down and the rain would speed up. Raindrops would hit your back at the same speed. Scientists call this time dilation. No matter how fast you move, your time slows down, at least for the speed of light this expression is true.

Duality of dimensions

Another thing that Einstein and Lorentz figured out was that two people under different circumstances can get different calculated values ​​and the strangest thing is that they will both be right. This is another side effect of light always moving at the same speed.

Let's do a thought experiment

Imagine that you are standing in the center of your room and you have installed a lamp right in the middle of the room. Now imagine that the speed of light is very slow and you can see how it travels, imagine that you turn on a lamp.

As soon as you turn on the lamp, the light will begin to spread out and illuminate. Since both walls are at the same distance, the light will reach both walls at the same time.

Now imagine that there is a large window in your room, and a friend of yours drives by. He will see something else. To him, it will look like your room is moving to the right and when you turn on the lamp, he will see the left wall moving towards the light. and the right wall moves away from the light. He will see that the light first hit the left wall, and then the right. It will seem to him that the light did not illuminate both walls at the same time.

According to Einstein's theory of relativity, both points of view will be right. From your point of view, light hits both walls at the same time. From your friend's point of view, this is not so. There's nothing wrong with that.

This is why scientists say that “simultaneity is relative.” If you measure two things that are supposed to happen at the same time, then someone moving at a different speed or in a different direction will not be able to measure them in the same way as you.

This seems very strange to us, because the speed of light is instantaneous for us, and we move very slowly in comparison. Since the speed of light is so high, we do not notice the speed of light until we carry out special experiments.

The faster an object moves, the shorter and smaller it is

Another very strange side effect that the speed of light does not change. At the speed of light, moving things become shorter.

Again, let's imagine that the speed of light is very slow. Imagine that you are traveling on a train and you have installed a lamp in the middle of the carriage. Now imagine that you turn on a lamp, like in a room.

The light will spread and simultaneously reach the walls in front and behind the car. This way you can even measure the length of the carriage by measuring how long it took the light to reach both sides.

Let's do the calculations:

Let's imagine that it takes 1 second to travel 10 meters and it takes 1 second for the light to spread from the lamp to the wall of the carriage. This means that the lamp is located 10 meters from both sides of the car. Since 10 + 10 = 20, this means the length of the car is 20 meters.

Now let's imagine that your friend is on the street, watching a train pass by. Remember that he sees things differently. The rear wall of the carriage moves towards the lamp, and the front wall moves away from it. This way, the light will not touch the front and back of the wall of the car at the same time. The light will reach the back first and then the front.

Thus, if you and your friend measure the speed of light propagation from the lamp to the walls, you will get different values, but from a scientific point of view, both calculations will be correct. Only for you, according to the measurements, the length of the carriage will be the same size, but for a friend, the length of the carriage will be less.

Remember, it's all about how and under what conditions you take measurements. If you were inside a rocket moving at the speed of light, you would not feel anything unusual, unlike the people on the ground measuring your movement. You wouldn't be able to realize that time was moving slower for you, or that the front and back of the ship had suddenly become closer to each other.

At the same time, if you were flying on a rocket, it would seem to you as if all the planets and stars were flying past you at the speed of light. In this case, if you try to measure their time and size, then logically for them time should slow down and their sizes should decrease, right?

All this was very strange and incomprehensible, but Einstein proposed a solution and combined all these phenomena into one theory of relativity.