explain how inesteins theory of relativity works???

Question: explain how inesteins theory of relativity works???

Asked by zackaroo222 to Meeks, Pete, Stephen, Steve, Tom on 18 Jun 2010 in Categories: General.
- Marieke Navin answered on 18 Jun 2010:
  
  Wow what a question!! This is a hard one! Really simply it describes the structure and curvature of space time – how light is bended around heavy objects (space time is a combination of time and space)
  It’s a bit more complicated than that and I do not pretend to understand it very well!! One consequence of the bending of light is gravitational lensing – the warped space around a galaxy or cluster acts as a lens and we can infer the presence of “dark matter”.
  Does that make sense at all zackaroo?!?
- Tom Hartley answered on 18 Jun 2010:
  
  Hi Zack,
  
  This again is a very interesting question, but a tough one that a physicist should deal with, really. I will get mixed-up and tell you something wrong. I have a couple of books on this, but they were too hard for me.
- Pete Edwards answered on 18 Jun 2010:
  
  Hi Zack
  I think I could spend a long time trying to answer this question! But why not take a look at:
  http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/einsteinlight/
  This has a whole load of useful stuff that may help.
  It took me an awful long time to get to grips with these ideas so good luck 😉
- Stephen Curry answered on 18 Jun 2010:
  
  Short answer: You just start with the question “why is the mass that determine the strength of gravitational attraction the same as the inertial mass (which determines the acceleration when any force is applied)” and just work from there.
  
  Well that is what worked for Einstein…
  
  The long answer will take a couple of years of university physics! 😉
  
  Or alternatively, one of the best explanations I have seen is given by Jacob Bronowski in episode 7 of his series ‘The Ascent of Man’ (available on DVD!)

Question: explain how inesteins theory of relativity works???

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