Special and general relativity is one of the most outstanding achievements of human thought. They were formulated at the beginning of the last century and were part of a single breakthrough of man in understanding the nature of the surrounding world. However, there is also a striking difference between them, which consists in the fact that the first theory, although it contradicted the usual ideas, was a logical consequence of the generalization of observational facts. The general theory of relativity was the product of a thought experiment. In fact, it was a real intellectual feat of its creator, the German physicist Albert Einstein.
Albert Einstein published his work, which first formulated the general theory of relativity, in 1915. Like much in modern physics, this theory contradicts our intuitive ideas about the world around us. Ray Dinverno said: "Truly, the intellectual leap it took for Einstein to go from special relativity to general relativity is one of the greatest in human history…". MyselfEinstein admitted in a letter to a colleague: "I have never worked with such tension … Compared to the general theory of relativity, the original theory is child's play … ".
According to the special theory of relativity, space and time are not independent substances. On the contrary, they are different manifestations of a single space-time. The relationship between time and space coordinates is different for frames of reference moving at different speeds. This, in particular, leads to the fact that two events that appear to be simultaneous for one observer may occur at different times for another.
However, this theory did not explain the nature of the forces of attraction. This is what the general theory of relativity did. Its postulates, in addition to the foundations of the special theory, contained the thesis of the inextricable connection between matter and space-time. She says that the force of gravity is due to the curvature of space that occurs around material objects. In other words, matter tells space how to curve, and space tells matter how to move.
Thus, this theory gives a complete picture in which space-time forms the theater of the existence of matter, and, on the other hand, matter determines its properties.
General relativity is the cornerstone of fundamental science. Despite this, she was awarded the Nobel Prize only in 1993. It was awarded to astrophysicists Hulse and Taylor for explaining the precession of a binarypulsar - a system consisting of two neutron stars. More recently, in 2011, another Nobel Prize was awarded for the contribution of this theory to cosmology and the explanation of the expansion of the universe.
And although its effects are negligible on Earth and in near-Earth space, it has very important practical applications. Probably the most important of them is global positioning systems, such as the American GPS and the Russian GLONASS. Without taking into account the effects of the theory of relativity, these systems would be at least an order of magnitude less accurate. So if you have a GPS phone, then general relativity works for you.
