Chapter 5: 1905, Einstein published theory of relativity and equation E=mc^2 Minkowski space : four-demensional space Good physical

sical laws are invariant: they do not change as the frame of reference or the units of measurement change Non-Euclidean nature -?? Tensor- variable that is an extension of a concept of a vector o Vector in space has 3 components o Tensor in 3-D space has 9 components o guv - accounted for curvature in space, 4 dimensions ( 3 for space, 1 for time) o metric tensor: measure of distance in curved space Einstein had to manipulate the metric tensor so that the invariance principle would hold under any transformation of his equations

Chapter 6: Einstein concentrated his attentions on the light-bending phenomenon: space is curved around massive objects, and a light rat passing by such an object will be bent o Ray of light climbing up gravitational field will lose energy (shift in freq. towards red end of spectrum) o Jupiters mass isnt big enough to allow measurement of the bending of light rays around it, o started for starlight in daytime b/c starlight emanated from a far-away point in space, and if it could be seen in daylight at an angle that makes it pass close to the sun, bending might be detected if one the position of the star was known then compared the expected position of rays with observed position Nordstroms idea was to develop an alternative theory of general relativity where the speed of light doesnt depend on a field. o If this theory was correct, a redshift due to gravitation would occur, but no light bending ESs goal was to determine whether light rays get bent in gravitational field of massive objects ES used a solar eclipse to observe all the stars Freunlich did research on double stars: if the masses of the two stars could be estimated as well as their radial velocities, theres a possibility to detect the gravitational redshift dead end experiment During solar eclipse, sun is hidden, the Suns corona is not; and stars in the area of the bright corona extending the moons shadow is very difficult to discern Shifting of the orbit of mercury is not due to another planet, but due to the effects of the suns gravitational field on the planet which lies close to it

Chapter 7: Riemann is famous for the zeta function: aids in the study of prime numbers through complex analysis Plenum: continuously filled spaced Gauss developed an idea of curvature saying the curvature of the flat Euclidean space as zero, curvature of a sphere is positive, and curvature of a hyperbolic is negative Riemann knew there was three kinds of geometry: Euclidean, hyperbolic, and elliptic/sphereical o But believed that a surface could have geometry that changes from point to point o Needed to understand notion of distance o In Euclidean space, shortest distance between two points in a right triangle is the hypotenuse o He wanted to generalize this distance to cases where space is no longer flat o The function that defines instantaneous distance b/w two points on the surface is: Ds2= guvdxudxv Einstein uses this formula and accounts for four dimensions of spacetime to finally derive equations of general relativity (page 96-97) o guv = metric tensor- which allowed ES to account for curvature that the gravitational field imposes upon the space of the universe topology: study of spaces and continuous functions ( answers questions such as whether a surface is connected or made up of several disconnected components) o topology says things about the overall geometry of surfaces called manifolds Mobius strip: 2-D surface twisted through the third dimension Klein Bottle: 3-D surface twisted through the 4th dimension o (images on page 99) Pseudosphere: inverted sphere with opposite, negative curvature