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Einstein Again

Encouraged by his successes with Special Relativity and Quantum Mechanics, Albert tackled the thorny problem of General Relativity (the behaviour of Physics in accelerated reference frames ) with his characteristic élan. The first difficulty was in distinguishing between truly accelerated frames (like a compartment in a rocket) and frames that only seem to be accelerated (like where you are sitting). Consider: if you can't look out the window, how do you know you are being pressed into the seat of your chair by the Earth's gravity, as opposed to being in a rocket somewhere in interstellar space accelerating "up" at 9.81 m/s? Well, yes, you walked into the room from outside and sat down just a short while ago; but suppose you had lost your memory? How can you tell (by experiment) which is the case?




Jess H. Brewer - Last modified: Mon Nov 23 16:34:49 PST 2015