Why Relativity is the Most Popular Theory(How

Relativity changed the World)

-written by Niranjan(aka StarStruck)

Theory of Relativity, the most influential theory in physics,
proposed by the genius and the most influential physicist,
Albert Einstein is not just merely accepted by physicians all
over the world, but also, it boasts of explaining maximum
phenomena in our universe, which were previously
unanswered by any other theory.

Making the whole world accept your theory isn’t an ordinary

thing. It takes rigorous tests by experts in the field to
validate its integrity. The best and unquestioned way of
testing a theory is applying it to visible phenomena in the
universe. The theory is expected to answer ‘Why’ about that
particular phenomenon.

The postulates of Relativity are:

1. The laws of physics are the same for all observers in

uniform motion relative to one another (principle of
relativity),
2. The speed of light in a vacuum is the same for all
observers, regardless of their relative motion or of the
motion of the source of the light.

The Michelson-Morley experiment not only supports

postulate 2, but also has many surprising consequences.
Some of these are:

• Relativity of simultaneity: Two events, simultaneous for

some observer, may not be simultaneous for another
observer if the observers are in relative motion.
• Time dilation: Moving clocks are measured to tick more
slowly than an observer's "stationary" clock.
• Length contraction: Objects are measured to be
shortened in the direction that they are moving with
respect to the observer.
• Mass-energy equivalence: E = mc2, energy and mass
are equivalent and transmutable.
Relativity wasn’t only successful in explaining
previously unanswered questions, but also,
depending on its statements and assumptions,
various predictions were made, which later proved to
be surprisingly correct.

Read on the supporting (and extraordinary) Facts:

“
1. Einstein himself had shown in 1915 how his theory
explained the anomalous perihelion advance of the planet
Mercury without any arbitrary parameters ("fudge factors").

2. According to relativity, orbits precess in a way unexpected

in Newton's theory of gravity. This has been observed in the
orbit of Mercury and in binary pulsars.

2. Similarly, a 1919 expedition led by Eddington confirmed

general relativity's prediction for the deflection of starlight
by the Sun during the total solar eclipse of May 29, 1919,
making Einstein instantly famous.

3. Yet the theory entered the mainstream of theoretical

physics and astrophysics only with the developments
between approximately 1960 and 1975, now known as the
Golden age of general relativity. Physicists began to
understand the concept of a black hole, and to identify these
objects' astrophysical manifestation as quasars.

4. Ever more precise solar system tests confirmed the

theory's predictive power, and relativistic cosmology, too,
became amenable to direct observational tests.
5. General relativity predicts that the path of light is bent in
a gravitational field; light passing a massive body is
deflected towards that body. This effect has been confirmed
by observing the light of stars or distant quasars being
deflected as it passes the Sun.

6. Einstein's theory has important astrophysical implications.

It points towards the existence of black holes—regions of
space in which space and time are distorted in such a way
that nothing, not even light, can escape—as an end-state for
massive stars. There is evidence that such stellar black holes
as well as more massive varieties of black hole are
responsible for the intense radiation emitted by certain types
of astronomical objects such as active galactic nuclei or
microquasars.
“

The Einstein Effect:

In the field of numerical relativity, powerful computers are

employed to simulate the geometry of spacetime and to
solve Einstein's equations for interesting situations such as
two colliding black holes. In principle, such methods may be
applied to any system, given sufficient computer resources,
and may address fundamental questions such as naked
singularities.

Why do People have problems about Time Dilation:

The most controversial issue about relativity is time dilation.

Time dilation is the phenomenon of slowing down of time for
a person moving with a very high speed, close to speed of
light.
In fact, every person moving with some speed, e.g. on your
bike, will experience time to slow down than for a stationary
person, but, this phenomenon is negligible at such small
speeds. To experience it influentially, you need to travel with
a speed close to speed of light.

Many people have problem imagining time dilation, and

many don’t believe it, in spite of knowing that time dilation is
experimentally proved by physicians all over the world,
through rigorous experiments.

Experiments that Proved Time Dilation:

1. An experiment was conducted to prove time dilation on

a Muon. A Muon is an unstable particle whose lifetime is
about 0,2 microseconds, after which, it changes into an
electron. But, when scientist observed the lifetime of a
muon moving at the speed of light, they found that it
existed for 30 times than its normal lifetime.

2. The clocks on our satellites have been observed to lag

behind the clocks on earth by few microseconds,
which again proves time dilation.

Not only these, but hundreds of experiments confirmed time

dilation. Einstein never called conclusions related with time
dilation as ‘paradoxes’, because he thought of them to be
obvious laws of physics.

To understand time dilation all we need to do is to know the

fact that ‘time’ is nothing but a quantity, just like ‘speed’.
We know that speed of an object can occur differently to two
observers, one stationary, and the other moving, because
this is what we see in our everyday lives. So why can’t we
consider time to be perceived differently by two different
observers in different circumstances?
Is it impossible because it’s is just hard to imagine time to
pass slowly for one & fast for the other? No.

My Conclusion:

A man shook the world and the Newtonian laws, only by

thinking out of the box, and that’s where he differed from
the ordinary.
So many evidences, so many surprising experiment
outcomes, numerous physical phenomena that we observe,
make Relativity an unbeatable theory to describe the
Universe.

Physics and its laws are not restricted to our heads and what
we are capable of thinking. It is much bigger and it still veils
many big secrets, perhaps, secret dimensions and secret
doorways, even secret universes. All we can do is to explore
it, and accept what it is, rather than keeping a narrow mind
and not accepting the things which we find ‘strange’ or
‘senseless’. Now with our so little knowledge about the
universe, we aren’t the one to decide something as ‘making
sense’ or ‘senseless’. Are we??