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Dec 2017
40m 21s

21: Einstein's Biggest Idea (General Rel...

Gabriel Hesch and Autumn Phaneuf
About this episode

Some see the world of thought divided into two types of ideas: evolutionary and revolutionary ideas. However, the truth can be more nuanced than that; evolutionary ideas can spur revolutions, and revolutionary ideas may be necessary to create incremental advancements. General relativity is an idea that was evolutionary mathematically, revolutionary physically, and necessary for our modern understanding of the cosmos. Devised in its full form first by Einstein, and later proven correct by experiment, general relativity gives us a framework for understanding not only the relationship between mass and energy and space and time, but topology and destiny. So why is relativity such an important concept? How do special and general relativity differ? And what is meant by the equation G=8πT?


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