Chapter 7 Summary

Since his theoretical articles challenge what Newton said two centuries earlier about gravity and light, Einstein is sometimes called the "Newton of the Twentieth Century." Einstein, however, does not refute Newton's paradigm. He merely recasts it as a special exception to his own general theory. Einstein theorizes that gravity is a field in space. Even a small planet like Earth influences its moon a quarter of a million miles away. Einstein theorizes that, with sufficient gravitational force, even light rays could be bent. Even more radical, he theorizes that space itself is curved, and the planets merely take the easiest routes available to them, just like a pilot flying between the United States and China would take a polar route instead of following a straight line. Einstein also theorizes that not only is space curved, but it is also finite. Einstein predicts that...