Einstein’s Time-Space World

Einstein's Theories of Relativity and Gravitation by Albert Einstein, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here. Einstein’s Time-Space World

Einstein’s Time-Space World

Einstein accordingly examined the possible non-Euclidean geometries of four dimensions, in search of one displaying fundamental characteristics which, interpreted in terms of space-time, would lead to the observed facts of gravitation. The mathematics of this investigation is that part of his work which, we are told, but twelve men can follow; so we may only outline his conclusions.[192]

If we assume that in the neighborhood of matter the world of space-time is non-Euclidean, and that its curvature or distortion or non-Euclideanism is of a certain type already known to mathematicians; that the curvature of this world in the neighborhood of matter increases with the mass, and decreases as the distance from the matter increases; and that every particle of matter that is not interfered with travels through space-time in the most direct path possible in that continuum; then the observed facts of gravitation are accounted for as an inherent geometric property of this space-time world. We usually say that the presence of matter distorts this world, and that this distortion gives the track of particles through the region affected its non-uniform character.

Gravitation then is not a force at all; it is the fundamental nature of things. A body free to move through the world must follow some definite path. Euclid says it will stand still; Newton that it will traverse a straight line in three-space at uniform time-rate; Einstein that it will move in a “geodesic” through time-space—in every-day language, that it will fall.

The numerical consequences of Einstein’s theory are, within the limits of observation, the same as those of Newton’s for all bodies save one—Mercury. This planet shows a small deviation from the path predicted by Newton’s law; Einstein’s theory gives its motion exactly. Again, when modern research showed that light must be affected by gravitation, Einstein’s theory, because of the extreme velocity of light, deviates from Newton’s, where the [193]speed is less a determining factor; and observations of starlight deflected by the sun during the eclipse were in much better accord with Einstein’s theory than Newton’s. Moreover, the Special Theory predicts that mass is an observational variable like length and duration. Radioactive emanations have a velocity high enough to give appreciable results here, and the prediction is verified, tending to support the general theory by supporting its limiting case.

We like always to unify our science; and seldom, after effecting a unification, are we forced to give it up. Einstein for the first time brings mechanical, electromagnetic and gravitational phenomena within one structure. This is one reason why physicists are so open minded toward his theory—they want it to be true.

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This book is part of the public domain. Albert Einstein (2020). Einstein's Theories of Relativity and Gravitation. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022.

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