The engineer, doctor in particle physics and scientific communicator Javier Santaolalla needs little more than 30 seconds to perfectly explain the concept of General Relativity , a theory developed by Einstein that is already more than one hundred years old, and that constant astrophysical tests do not stop confirming Today.
Although there is, for the moment, a theory of everything; that is, a model capable of unifying and explaining the complex laws of the universe , Einstein’s Relativity is very close to meeting this requirement.
However, as Santaolalla explains, there are several types of Relativity. The special and the general. In any case, they both refer to how we see space-time and matter within this fabric.
According to relativity, time ceases to be something static, but becomes something dynamic , in a dimension of its own. Therefore, we do not live in a static world; time and space are not a stage, but rather they are something flexible and that depends on the circumstances in which we live.
Taking this into account, as the engineer and doctor of physics affirms, time can be delayed or accelerated, it can be shortened or lengthened , and this makes the way we see the universe so different.
One of the most recent tests showing that Einstein’s conception of the space-time fabric is real occurred recently, and in fact earned him the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics. It involves the detection of gravitational waves.
In 1916, Albert Einstein postulated that, if his theory of general relativity was correct, a phenomenon should occur which he called gravitational or gravitational waves.
Just one hundred years later, in 2016, the first gravitational wave detection occurred , and since then successive detections have taken place that have continued to confirm that Einstein was right.
In addition, along with the fourth detection of gravitational waves there was an additional discovery: this detection came, not from the collision of black holes, as in previous detections; but from the collision of two neutron stars. It is the first time that science has detected an astronomical event like this, although it had been predicted on paper.
The Theory of Relativity does not stop winning points in its favor, and it is arguably the most famous equation in the world. More specifically, it defines that the equivalence between mass (m) and energy (E) implies that the energy of a moving object increases its mass, an effect that is only noticeable at speeds close to that of light (c).
That is: E = mc2
