March 28, 2005: This year marks the 100th anniversary of a revolution in our notions of space and time.
"Before 1905, when Albert Einstein published his theory of special relativity, most people believed that space and time were as Sir Isaac Newton described them back in the 17th century: Space was the fixed, unchanging "stage" upon which the great cosmic drama unfolded, and time was the mysterious, universal "clock in the sky." Even today, people commonly assume that this intuitive sense of space and time is correct. It's not. Einstein's 1905 paper, along with another one he published in 1915, painted an entirely different and mind-bending picture. Space itself is constantly being warped and curved by the matter and energy moving within it, and time flows at different rates for different observers. Numerous real-world experiments over the last 100 years indicate that, amazingly, Einstein was right. But scientists today have reason to think that even Einstein's theory isn't the whole story; another revolution seems inevitable. The reason for doubt is that Einstein's theory is incompatible with quantum mechanics, another pillar of modern physics that describes the odd world of subatomic particles. When the theories are used together, sometimes, their combined equations produce nonsense. This leads scientists to believe that current theories will eventually be replaced by a single, elegant theory that explains all physical phenomena from the subatomic to the cosmic, the so-called "Theory of Everything." When will the first shots of this physics revolution ring out? Perhaps when Einstein, like Newton before him, is proven wrong--or at least not quite right. To hunt for flaws in Einstein's theories, scientists are crafting experiments that can measure the predictions of relativity with ever-greater precision. One such experiment is NASA's Gravity Probe B (GP-B)."
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
On Francisco Franco
On Francisco Franco written by Charles Few Americans know much about Francisco Franco, leader of the winning side in the Spanish C...

-
Starálfur Blá Nótt Yfir HimininnBlá Nótt Yfir MérHorf-Inn Út Um GluggannMinn Með HendurFaldar Undir KinnHugsum Daginn MinnÍ Dag Og Í GærBlá ...
-
"From our perspective this is an issue between Colombia and Ecuador," he said. "I'm not sure what this has to do with Ven...
-
OAKLEY Are you absolutely sure that's wise, sir? I mean, I don't want to sound pretentious here, but Itchy and Scratchy comprise a ...
No comments:
Post a Comment