Nous vous invitons à un après-midi de conférences consacrées aux idées et concepts philosophiques dans les théories de la relativité restreinte et générale d’Albert Einstein. (Les conférences se tiendront en anglais.)
vendredi 20 mars 2020
B-3285, Pavillon 3200 Jean-Brillant
Université de Montréal
1:30pm – 2:30pm
Einstein’s Path to a New Theory
Chris Smeenk, Rotman Institute of Philosophy, University of Western Ontario
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.
2:30pm – 3:00pm Pause
3:00pm – 4:00pm
Simultaneity and Causality in Relativity
Manu Paranjape, Department of physics, Université de Montréal
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!
4:00pm – 5:00pm Table ronde
5:00pm – 7:00pm Cocktail