Astro notes Bause North Farmington High School It’s all relative! Astro notes Bause North Farmington High School

Newton and gravity Newton's laws of motion work very well for anything moving at much less than the speed of light His law of gravity works very well for any place of weak gravity such as in the solar system His laws fail when dealing with MASSIVE objects with VERY strong magnetic fields and with objects traveling a fraction of the speed of light or faster. Einstein developed Special Relativity and General Relativity, a revolutionary leap in our understanding of gravity and the nature of space and time.

Relative Einstein found that what you measure for length, time, and mass depends on your motion relative to a chosen frame of reference. HOWEVER, everything is in motion! The earth, our solar system, our galaxy…etc. SO, space and time are RELATIVE to the frame of reference.

Special Relativity The passage of time on fast-moving objects is slower than if the object was at rest.  the faster you go, the slower time goes by. HOWEVER, an observer inside a fast moving object would not FEEL as if time was going by slower. (it’s all RELATIVE) NOTHING can travel faster than the speed of light. Curved space time (recall Einstein’s Dream: video) and general relativity (more later) Matter can be converted into energy and energy can be converted into matter. E = mc2

General Relativity

General Relativity 2

Evidence of warped space-time This smudge That smudge