My daughter asked me about the Theory of Relativity which can be easily understood because she felt confused by the abundance of matter she found on the net about the theory...I wrote this small intro for her with the help of a wonderful Telugu book I have on the subject.......I wrote two more notes to her explaining it a bit more which I would post later sometime......
The Universe is finite but boundless. This sentence appears paradoxical and contradictory, but if we investigate further on the meaning, then the mystery reveals itself.
For example, take the earth. The surface of the earth is finite, yet it is boundless. One may walk or ride miles and miles on the earth but the earth never ends and there is no board saying that this is the end of the earth. But does that mean earth has infinite dimensions? No but it is a sphere and curves in on itself and closes so that we can never reach its end by going on it.
Einstein says that the Universe is also like this and curves in and closes on itself. This means that the Universe is not infinite but yet it is boundless. But one caution here, one can compare the surface of the earth with that of the Universe but not its volume.
Einstein postulated that like the earth, the Universe curves on itself and closes. The Universe we see is of 3 dimensions (as per our perception) Length, breadth and height. Now Einstein postulates that our Universe has not 3 but for dimensions and the fourth is time.
What is time? It is duration between 2 events. The same way as we measure length in meters and Kilometers, similarly we are measuring time in seconds, minutes and hours. Therefore time is also a dimension. Without specifying the time an event becomes meaningless. For example “Buddha is born”. But when was he born? Until the time frame is supplied it does not become specific to us and complete.
Because of this, time and space cannot be separated and the both have a relationship. This concept was used in science by Einstein. He named it “Space time continuum”. Therefore for Einstein, Universe consists of both space and time and they are interlinked. This discovery was done by Einstein with the Theory of Relativity. As per him there is nothing absolute in the Universe and everything is relative.
For example we can give many examples for relativity in life. Can you call a person only a Father? He is a father only to his children, but to another he is a husband, to another he is a son and to yet another he is a friend.
Big and small are also relative. A mouse is big to an insect but small to a cat. Here we can remember the riddle of the line where a bigger line drawn before it makes it small.
Similarly left and right are also relative. In a street, if you enter from one side if it is left, then if you enter from another side it would be right. Newton’s theory of gravitation was ruling by Einstein’s time but inconsistencies in the theory started emerging slowly and scientists found them very hard to reconcile.
Then in 1905 Einstein published his special theory of relativity and his General Theory of Relativity in 1915 which satisfactorily answered those inconsistencies that could not be reconciled by Newton’s theory. Einstein’s theory is full of mathematical deductions and it is said that initially very few scientists in the world could understand it. Einstein never entered a laboratory and brought out all his deductions purely with the help of mathematics.
Einstein is like a prophet. After Einstein postulated, scientists have carried out various tests that proved him to be correct. His mathematical deductions are beyond our comprehension but his theory can be revealed in everyday terms. It seems a student asked his professor as to what is the theory of relativity. The professor said “ If you lover is with you, then an hour seems a second to you, and if she is not there then one second seems like one hour”. So time is but relative.
When Einstein died, he was working on a “Unified Field Theory” that proposed to combine the Theory of Relativity with Electromagnetism. One wonders what mysteries he would have unraveled if he stayed alive. Einstein died in 1955 and unfortunately to this day the Unified Field Theory is incomplete.
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