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kaushikquanta
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what general theory of relativity deals with. why special theory of relativity fails at one stage
Special Theory of relativity deals with "special" kind of reference frames which are moving at constant velocities with respect to each other and where Galilean principle that free bodies move with constant velocity holds. Such special frames are the inertial frames i.e, where this law of inertia holds.kaushikquanta said:what general theory of relativity deals with. why special theory of relativity fails at one stage
This is not right. The special theory works just fine for accelerations and in non-inertial frames (google for "Rindler coordinates" for one example) as long as we're working with a flat spacetime, which is to say no gravity.klen said:Special Theory of relativity deals with "special" kind of reference frames which are moving at constant velocities with respect to each other and where Galilean principle that free bodies move with constant velocity holds. Such special frames are the inertial frames i.e, where this law of inertia holds.
I think special relativity is valid where Minkowskian distance in spacetime is invariant between various frames of reference. This is not the case with the accelerated frames where, as you said, distance is measured with different metric.Nugatory said:This is not right. The special theory works just fine for accelerations and in non-inertial frames (google for "Rindler coordinates" for one example) as long as we're working with a flat spacetime, which is to say no gravity.
That is simply not true. The metric tensor is a property of the spacetime, not the frame that you use to assign coordinates to points in spacetime, so it is not different in accelerated frames. We're just writing it down using different coordinates so it looks different.klen said:This is not the case with the accelerated frames where, as you said, distance is measured with different metric.
In Minkowskian space distance is measured by:Nugatory said:That is simply not true. The metric tensor is a property of the spacetime, not the frame that you use to assign coordinates to points in spacetime, so it is not different in accelerated frames. We're just writing it down using different coordinates so it looks different.
klen said:In Minkowskian space distance is measured by:
In Rindler coordinates it changes to:
What I am saying is we cannot use the Minkowskian formula to calculate the distances in an accelerated frame. Special relativity holds only for the frames in which the above Minkowskian distance is invariant.
klen said:What I am saying is we cannot use the Minkowskian formula to calculate the distances in an accelerated frame. Special relativity holds only for the frames in which the above Minkowskian distance is invariant.
Smattering said:According to a radio feature I heard this morning, Einstein was sitting in some waiting room when he suddenly had the idea that someone who is in free fall will not feel his own weight. They quoted Einstein as saying that this was the key insight that inpired him to work on general relativity.
At least to me, this makes only sense if Einstein already had an idea how to handle accelarated frames. Because in that case, the equivalence between gravity and accelaration would allow him to reduce gravity to something that he already knew. If accelarated frames had been equally unwieldily to him as gravity, then the equivalence between them would not have led to any major insight.
Einstein's idea of Equivalence Principle was that freely falling reference frames can be "locally" considered inertial, which he knew how to deal with using SR. Based on this idea, Einstein argued what would happen in a gravitational field. And then found that accelerated frames could also be dealt with in a similar way (to that of gravity) locally.Smattering said:At least to me, this makes only sense if Einstein already had an idea how to handle accelarated frames. Because in that case, the equivalence between gravity and accelaration would allow him to reduce gravity to something that he already knew. If accelarated frames had been equally unwieldily to him as gravity, then the equivalence between them would not have led to any major insight.
The General Theory of Relativity is a scientific theory proposed by Albert Einstein in 1915 to explain the force of gravity and its effects on the behavior of objects in the universe. It is considered one of the pillars of modern physics and has been extensively tested and confirmed through various experiments and observations.
The key concepts of the General Theory of Relativity include the principle of equivalence, the curvature of spacetime, and the concept of gravity as a result of the warping of space and time by massive objects. It also introduces the concept of spacetime as a four-dimensional continuum, where space and time are interwoven and affected by the presence of matter and energy.
The General Theory of Relativity revolutionized our understanding of space, time, and gravity and provided a more accurate and comprehensive framework for describing the behavior of objects in the universe. It also laid the foundation for many important scientific discoveries, such as the prediction of black holes and gravitational waves.
Einstein proposed the General Theory of Relativity to address the limitations of Newton's theory of gravity, which could not fully explain certain phenomena, such as the orbit of Mercury around the Sun. He also wanted to unify the laws of gravity with his previous work on the theory of special relativity, which dealt with the behavior of objects at high speeds.
The General Theory of Relativity has been extensively tested and confirmed through various experiments and observations, such as the bending of starlight by massive objects, the precession of Mercury's orbit, and the detection of gravitational waves. It has also been used to make accurate predictions in many practical applications, such as GPS technology.