Physics & Philosophy

Shortly after revising long-standing assumptions regarding space and time with his discovery of special relativity, Einstein turned to the problem of gravity. Several of Einstein’s contemporaries tried to reformulate Newton’s theory so that it would be compatible with special relativity. But Einstein took a more radical approach. Here I will describe the motivations for Einstein’s approach and how it led to not only the general theory of relativity, but also the first cosmological model.

It is clear that simultaneity is a concept that is strictly relative in both special and general relativity, I will expose this through an analysis of the twin paradox. The notion of causality on the other hand, although a globally valid concept in special relativity, is only locally valid in general relativity. You can see a clock running backwards in time in general relativity!