Einstein's Theories of Relativity
Overview
At the dawn of the twentieth century the classical laws of physics put forth by Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) in the late seventeenth century stood venerated and triumphant. The laws described with great accuracy the phenomena of everyday existence. A key assumption of Newtonian laws was a reliance upon an absolute frame of reference for natural phenomena. As a consequence of this assumption, scientists searched for an elusive "ether" through which light waves could pass. In one grand and sweeping "theory of special relativity," Albert Einstein (1879-1955) was able to account for the seemingly conflicting and counter-intuitive predictions stemming from work in electromagnetic radiation, experimental determinations of the constancy of the speed of light, length contraction, time dilation, and mass enlargements. A decade later, Einstein once again revolutionized concepts of space and time with the publication of his "general theory of relativity."
Background
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries predominant philosophical and religious thought led many scientists to accept the argument that seemingly separate forces of nature shared a common source or absolute reference frame. Against this backdrop, nineteenth-century experimental work resulted in the unification of concepts regarding electricity, magnetism, and light by James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) with his four famous equations describing electromagnetic waves.
This page contains 201 words.
Einstein's Theories of Relativity article
Read the rest of this article.
This article contains 1,963 words
(approx. 7 pages at 300 words per page).
Order our Theory of relativity Article
