Nature is quirky. Whenever things don't quite match up, She changes them so they will. The results often seem to be bizarre and nonsensical, but the more you study it you realize how profoundly wise Nature is. It all started with a thought experiment...
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Nature is quirky. Whenever things don't quite match up, She changes them so they will. The results often seem to be bizarre and nonsensical, but the more you study it you realize how profoundly wise Nature is. It all started with a thought experiment that Einstein said he came up with at around the age of 16. The young Einstein wondered what would happen if he chased a light beam and caught up with it. This essay describes two of the most important discoveries in science: The Special Theory of Relativity and the General Theory of Relativity. Both of these discoveries were made by a single man, Albert Einstein, over a period of one decade (1905 – 1915). This essay is directed at an audience of amateur scientists like myself. I will approach these two theories on the basis of their underlying principles, deriving as much as possible using basic geometry and a bit of elementary calculus. I will not go into the depth needed to become a “relativist.” Mastery of general relativity
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