Gemma Church - The freelance writer who gets tech

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Sunday Science: General Relativity

1/20/2017

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General Relativity is the pillar of modern physics. Let's try and explain it in a few paragraphs and with the help of Lego Batman.
First, we need to understand Newton's first law of motion. Here it is: an object will stay sat still or keep moving forever at a constant speed, unless a force acts on it.
Batman likes to jump off buildings. When he jumps off buildings he's accelerating to the ground.
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But Batman doesn't feel a force when this happens. And he should under Newton's first law of motion. It doesn't make sense.
Einstein (why does no one make a Lego Einstein?!) came up with the solution: gravity is a product of warped space and time.

What is space and time? It's like a blanket on which every astronomical object sits.

And the heavier you are the more you warp space and time.
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Duplo Batman is warping space time more than Lego Batman. If they were up in space, it would look something like this:
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Image courtesy of Science News.
The Earth does not keep the Moon in orbit by exerting a physical force on it, but because its mass distorts the surrounding space and forces the Moon to move that way. 

​This means that being at rest in a gravitational field and accelerating are physically identical.

​This is General Relativity.

What is Sunday Science?

Hello. I'm the freelance writer who gets tech. I have two degrees in Physics and, during my studies, I became increasingly frustrated with the complicated language used to describe some outstanding scientific principles. Language should aid our understanding - in science, it often feels like a barrier.

So, I want to simplify these science sayings and this blog series "Sunday Science" gives a quick, no-nonsense definition of the complex-sounding scientific terms you often hear, but may not completely understand. 

If there's a scientific term or topic you'd like me to tackle in my next post, fire an email to  gemma@geditorial.com or leave a comment below. If you want to sign up to our weekly newsletter, pop your email in the form below - thanks!

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