Hello jjc1965,
Einstein had two theories of relativity; the “Special Theory of
Relativity” and the “General Theory or Relativity”.
Dave Slaven, Ph.D. of Saginaw Valley State University, (“Dave's
Relativity Page”, http://www.svsu.edu/~slaven/relativity1.html)
describes it as follows:
“The theory of relativity is actually a two-fold work. First, there's
the Special Theory of Relativity, published in 1905. This was
basically Einstein's resolution of some paradoxes involving the speed
of light, and it describes the behavior of objects at very high
speeds. About ten years later, Einstein published the General Theory
of Relativity, an altogether more mind-blowing theory which provides a
more precise description of gravity than Isaac Newton did.”
“Dave’s Relativity Page” contains a very good introduction to Special
Relativity. He also links to a lesson in the general theory of
relativity, written by Nymbus
(http://www.svsu.edu/~slaven/gr/index.html). In this lesson, Nymbus
begins by stating the following:
“Before beginning this brief article, dealing with the essential
features of general relativity, we have to postulate one thing:
special relativity is supposed to be true. Hence, general relativity
lies on special relativity. If the latter were proved to be false, the
whole edifice would collapse.”
However, it was the limitations of special relativity that lead
Einstein to the development of general relativity.
Frank Wolfs of the University of Rochester describes these limitations
as follows (http://teacher.pas.rochester.edu/Ast102Fall2002/LectureNotes/Lecture08/Lecture08notes.pdf):
"- Special relativity only applies to inertial reference frames, and
thus could not be used to describe anything involving but motion in a
straight line at constant speed.
- Therefore it could not be applied to situations involving forces,
such as electromagnetic forces involving charges and currents (though
it works well for light), or the force of
Gravity."
Wolfs goes on to provide that following description of general
relativity:
"- In the General Theory of Relativity space and time are closely
connected (space-time) and may be curved.
- When particle and light travel in space-time, they follow the
shortest paths between two points (the geodesic). The geodesics are in
general not straight lines; they are only straight if space and time
are not curved.
- In general, space and time are warped, so that the geodesics are
not straight lines.
- Masses and energies present in space and time determine how space
and time are warped. This process is what we call gravity."
At the Astronomy Café website, in an article titled “Einstein's Cosmic
Fudge Factor” written by Sten Odenwald (Copyright (C) 1991. Sky
Publishing Corporation.),
(http://itss.raytheon.com/cafe/anthol/fudge.html) states the
following:
“In 1917, Albert Einstein tried to use his newly developed theory of
general relativity to describe the shape and evolution of the
universe. The prevailing idea at the time was that the universe was
static and unchanging. Einstein had fully expected general relativity
to support this view, but, surprisingly, it did not. The inexorable
force of gravity pulling on every speck of matter demanded that the
universe collapse under its own weight.
His remedy for this dilemma was to add a new 'antigravity' term to his
original equations. It enabled his mathematical universe to appear as
permanent and invariable as the real one. This term, usually written
as an uppercase Greek lambda, is called the 'cosmological constant'.
It has exactly the same value everywhere in the universe, delicately
chosen to offset the tendency toward gravitational collapse at every
point in space.”
The author goes on to state:
“Soon thereafter, theorists closely examining Einstein's model
discovered that, like a pencil balanced on its point, it was unstable
to collapse or expansion.”
He further states:
“Admitting his blunder, Einstein retracted Lambda in 1932. At first
this seemed to end the debate about its existence. Yet decades later,
despite the great physicist's disavowal, Lambda keeps turning up in
cosmologists' discussions about the origin, evolution, and fate of the
universe.”
The website of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory includes an
article titled “The Flaws of General Relativity”
(http://aether.lbl.gov/www/classes/p139/speed/fgr.html) which states:
“A compilation of some defects of the conventional theory of
gravitation
It is generally assumed that Albert Einstein's theory of general
relativity is an adequate theory of gravitation. However, although it
has well passed all observational and experimental tests so far, some
theoretical arguments indicate that it will have to be replaced with a
more consistent theory.”
It goes on to list the flaws as follows:
“General Relativity Does Not Respect Local Energy-Momentum”
“General Relativity Predicts Space-Time Singularities”
“General Relativity Failed to Be Quantized”
The article provides a detailed description of each "flaw".
I hope you have found this answer satisfactory. If not please request
clarification.
Good luck with your studies.
Googlenut-ga
Other references:
Edward L. Wright, UCLA Division of Astronomy and Astrophysics
http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/relatvty.htm
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap951219.html
School of Mathematical and Computational Sciences, University of St
Andrews
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/HistTopics/Special_relativity.html
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/HistTopics/General_relativity.html
MSN.com, “Clarifying Einstein’s rules of the road”, MSNBC News, July
19, 2000
http://www.msnbc.com/news/435007.asp
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