How Einstein changed the world with his theory of general relativity...and why you would literally be lost without it
- Today marks a century since Einstein first presented the theory
- The impact of the research into general relatively is still felt today
- Without it we would not have GPS on our phones and in our cars
- Our understanding of the Big Bang and black holes would also be different
On this day, 100 years ago, an unknown German patents clerk presented a scientific principle that would change the world forever.
A century later, Albert Einstein's Theory of General Relativity is still reshaping how the scientific community thinks as they search for a grand Theory of Everything.
The basis of general relativity describes how mass and space are related to each other and states that matter can bend and warp the fabric of space and time due to the effects of gravity.
Albert Einstein's famous theory of General Relativity, which he presented 100 years ago today, is one of the world's most famous equations and underpins much of modern physics. Without Einstein (pictured), however, many technologies and our understanding of the universe that we take for granted today may not exist
But its implications goes way beyond the physics laboratory and without its discovery - coupled with the physicist's earlier theory of special relativity - the modern world, and the way we understand it, would be almost unrecognisable.
GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEMS
We use them everyday to find our way around cities, to track objects and even to time financial transactions.
But GPS systems owe a debt of gratitude to Einstein and his thought experiments, without which they would not exist at all.
The highly precise clocks have oscillators that function not on springs or pendulums, but atoms.
The level of precision required for satellites is down to this atom clock, whose ticks must be known to an accuracy of 20 to 30 nanoseconds.
Because the satellites are constantly moving relative to the Earth, effects predicted by Einstein's theory must be taken into account.
In particular, the pull of gravity is stronger on Earth than in the satellite's orbit, meaning time is passing marginally faster in the latter than it is in the former.
The precision of atomic clocks makes the desired accuracy achievable and GPS technology corrects this discrepancy to make the location accurate.
THE BIG BANG
The birth of the known universe has been a problem that has stumped scientists for centuries.
Scientists realised that if you went back far enough in time, the universe would get increasingly smaller, or shrink, until the moment when it appeared.
This became known as the Big Bang and suggests that since that moment, the universe has expanded.
Einstein's theory similar suggests that the universe, or the so-called space-time metric, is expanding.
And measurements using telescopes have subsequently shown that the universe does indeed appear to be expanding in this way, as distant galaxies are moving away from us.
Without Einstein, this fundamental piece of physics that underpins much of how we understand our universe today would have been far harder to unravel.
The existence of black holes (artists impression illustrated) was first proposed using Einstein's theory of general relativity shortly after he published his equations in 1915. Although Einstein himself was sceptical about the existence of black holes, astronomers can see their effects on the universe around us
GPS systems owe a debt of gratitude to Einstein and his Theory of General Relativity. As the satellites that provide the service are constantly moving relative to the Earth, effects predicted by Einstein's theory must be taken into account to ensure they remain accurate
BLACK HOLES
They are among the most mysterious objects in our universe - concentrated wells of gravity from which nothing, not even light can escape.
But without Einstein's general relativity equations, we could still be ignorant of the existence of black holes, as it was instrumental in their discovery.
Without this we would have never benefited from the wild imaginations of science fiction writers as they speculated what lies beyond a black hole.
The world would certainly never been able to enjoy Matthew McConaughey staying young while all around him aged by hundreds of years in the film Interstellar.
This is because according to Einstein's theory, gravity can cause time to dilate.
The closer you are to a mass producing gravity, the slower time passes. Einstein himself, however, was sceptical about the idea of black holes.
STAR TREK
Star Trek obsessives will point out that while Star Wars is fantasy, Star Trek is more like hard-core sci-fi, meaning the laws of physics should – technically – be more accurate.
General Relativity provides a wealth of possibilities for the writers of the long-running Star Trek series.
Indeed the warp technology used by the Starship Enterprise is based upon Einstein's theories and works by warping space around the ship.
Star Trek's USS Enterprise was able to travel over large distances using Warp Speed. This fictional technology may never have been dreamed up if it was not for Einstein's famous theory, which detailed the warping of space and time
This bubble of folded space contracts in front of the ship and expands behind it faster than the speed of light, meaning that the ship itself is not, at any moment, traveling faster than the speed of light.
There is some artistic license, but in general there is nothing in our current understanding of physics that would make this impossible.
HIGH-SPEED SPACE TRAVEL
In August, this year astrophysicist Professor Geraint Lewis from the University of Sydney announced that high-speed travel between galaxies - known as 'warp speed' - might actually be possible.
Once the reserve of science fiction fantasy, speed-space travel is actually part of Einstein's theory of relativity, according to Professor Lewis.
Einstein (pictured) was still a patent's clerk in Germany when he first came up with his theories of Special and General Relativity in 1905 and 1915 respectively
'If you look at the equation that Einstein gave us, it shows you can bend and warp space so you can travel at any speed you like in the universe,' he said in a talk at National Science Week in Sydney.
'It's theoretically possible, but can we ever build a warp drive? We have hints that the kind of materials that we would need exist in the universe but whether or not we could get them together, we still don't know.'
While the principle may be still be theoretical, Professor Lewis said there are signs that aspects of the universe might actually have the kind of property needed for time-warp travel.
Indeed, Einstein's Theory of General Relativity also helps to support the existence of wormholes - shortcuts through the fabric of space and time brought about by the distortions that intense sources of gravity can create.
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