Warps and Ripples

in
Space and Time

By:
Vaibhav Singh
Class: XII Section: C
Roll No.: 52
Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .................................................................................................................................. 1
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................................... 2
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................................ 3
NEWTON AND THE LAWS OF GRAVITY ......................................................................................................................... 3
DISTORTIONS IN SPACE AND TIME .............................................................................................................................. 4
You can’t tell if you’re moving (at a constant rate) ....................................................................................... 4
Space and Time are Linked............................................................................................................................. 4
Moving Clocks Tick More Slowly (Time Dilation) ......................................................................................................... 4
Importance of Perspective ..................................................................................................................................... 6
Proper time interval........................................................................................................................................... 6
Moving Objects Contract in Space (Length Contraction) ............................................................................................ 7
The Four Dimensions of Spacetime ............................................................................................................................. 9
SPACETIME ............................................................................................................................................................ 9
Mathematical Definition .............................................................................................................................. 10
Minkowski Diagrams.................................................................................................................................... 11
Minkowski Space in General Relativity ........................................................................................................ 11
THEORY OF RELATIVITY ........................................................................................................................................... 11
Special Theory of Relativity .......................................................................................................................... 12
General Theory of Relativity......................................................................................................................... 12
Some consequences of General Relativity ................................................................................................................ 12

GRAVITY .................................................................................................................................................... 13
UNDERSTANDING GRAVITY...................................................................................................................................... 13
Acceleration and Gravity can be Indistinguishable (Equivalence Principle) ................................................. 13
Effective Mass ........................................................................................................................................................... 13
Example of Equivalence Principle .............................................................................................................................. 14
Space Warps Under Accelerated Motion ..................................................................................................... 15
Gravity is the Curvature of Spacetime ......................................................................................................... 15
Einstein Field Equations ............................................................................................................................................ 16
TESTS OF GENERAL RELATIVITY ................................................................................................................................ 18
Gravity Bends Light ...................................................................................................................................... 18
Gravity Slows the Passage of Time .............................................................................................................. 18
GPS Technology Needs Offsetting ................................................................................................................ 19
Moving and Rotating Objects Make Additional Twists and Warps in Spacetime ........................................ 19
The Universe Ripples as Objects Move and Collide ...................................................................................... 19
GRAVITATIONAL WAVES ......................................................................................................................................... 19
Echoes of Cataclysm from Far Away ............................................................................................................ 19
The LIGO and Virgo Experiments ................................................................................................................. 19
Gravitational Wave Astronomy ................................................................................................................... 21
CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................................. 22
IS OUR UNDERSTANDING COMPLETE? ........................................................................................................................ 22
BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................................................... 23
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

1
 ABSTRACT
Take a moment to observe the effects of gravity. Lift your arm and feel how you are
compelled to drop it again. Gravity is always there — it’s stable, it’s permanent, it’s unchanging. Or is
it?

For hundreds of years, we’ve been able to predict the effects of gravity. But we had no idea
how it worked until Einstein stepped in, painting a strange and unintuitive picture. In Einstein’s view,
gravity is far from a static, unchanging force — it is a fundamental part of the structure of the
universe, which curves and twists and ripples as objects move and rotate and jostle about.

The predictions of Einstein’s theories have been validated time and time again. And now,
100 years after the formulation of his theory of gravity, another one of its predictions —
gravitational waves —has been directly measured, despite Einstein’s belief that we’d never be able
to do this.

In this project we’ll explore Einstein’s dynamic vision of gravity, including the recently
measured phenomenon of gravitational waves. If you’re unfamiliar with relativity, some of these
concepts may boggle your mind. If so, we encourage you to keep pushing onwards, as it’s one of the
greatest journeys in the history of science.

2
 INTRODUCTION
Newton and the Laws of Gravity
Newton published on the most celebrated works of science, the Principia, in 1687. In it, he
described that the force that pulls objects towards the ground is the very same force that underlies
the motion of the plants and the stars.

To come to this conclusion, Newton imaged taking an object far from the surface of Earth,
and throwing it. It you throw it with too little momentum, it will fall towards Earth, captured by
gravity like we are ourselves. If you throw it with too much momentum, it will speed away from the
planet, beginning its journey into the reaches of space. But with exactly the right momentum, you
can throw it so that it falls continuously around Earth, around and around in an eternal tug-of-war.
The object tries to continue in the path you threw it, but gravity keeps on pulling it back in. With the
right balance, the object is now in orbit around Earth—just like the moon, or like Earth around the
sun.

Newton formulated this insight into a mathematical equation, known today as the law of
universal gravitation. Gravitational force 𝐹𝑔 is always attractive, and it depends only on the masses
involved and the distance between them. Every object in the universe attracts every other object
with a force along a line joining them. The equation for Newton’s law of gravitation is:

𝐺𝑚1 𝑚2
𝐹𝑔 =
𝑟2
Where:

𝐹𝑔 is the gravitational force between 𝑚1 and 𝑚2 .

𝑚3
𝐺 is the gravitational constant equal to 6.67 × 10-11
𝑘𝑔 ∙ 𝑠 2

And
𝑚1 and 𝑚2 are masses.

The force is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional
to the square of the distance between their centers of mass. This is called an inverse-square law.

Newton is acknowledged not just because of his idea, but because he formulated that idea
into an equation that made predictions with greater accuracy than ever before. When combined
with knowledge of geometry and Newton’s other equation of motion, we can use it to make
predictions about the movement of the plants, or the paths of comets, or how much force is needed
to get a rocket to the moon. But it wasn’t perfect — Newton’s equations produced some incorrect
predictions, and, more importantly, he didn’t describe how gravity works the way it does. Newton
was well aware of this when he said,

“Gravity must be caused by an agent acting constantly according to certain laws; but
whether this agent be material or immaterial, I have left to the consideration of my
readers.”
— Isaac Newton

3
Distortions in Space and Time

You can’t tell if you’re moving (at a constant rate)

In 1632, even before Newton published his now-famous work, Galileo Galilei wrote about
the relative motion of objects familiar in his time: ships.

If you are in a closed room on a ship sailing at a constant speed and the ride is perfectly
smooth, objects behave as they would on land. There’s no physical experiment you could conduct to
tell whether you’re moving or stationary (assuming you’re not peeking out of a porthole). This is the
core idea behind relativity, and is the same reason why we don’t feel our planet’s movement around
the sun, or our solar system’s movement through the galaxy.

Experiments in a smooth-moving vehicle yield the same results as experiments conducted on land.

Space and Time are Linked

Almost 300 years after Galileo, Einstein pondered the consequences of relativity in the
context of an important factor: the speed of light. Einstein formulated a theory – his theory of
special relativity – to explain existing phenomena and create new predictions. At first, special
relativity may not seem to have much to do with gravity, but it was an essential stepping stone for
Einstein for understanding gravity.

Moving Clocks Tick More Slowly (Time Dilation)

Experiments during Einstein’s time had shown that the speed of light appeared to be
constant. No matter how fast you try and catch up, light always appears to zip away from you at
almost 3 × 108 metres per second (c).

Why is this impactful? Consider a hypothetical experiment. Take a rod of length L as

measured by an observer fixed with the rod and suppose that there are two mirrors fixed at the
ends. Suppose a light pulse is reflected back and forth by the mirrors. Let us find the time interval
between successive reflections from the mirror M1. Let us call the first reflection ‘event E1’ and the
next reflection ‘event E2’. (The word ‘event’ also has a specialised meaning in the mathematical
theory of relativity but we are using the literal meaning only.)

4
 The figure above shows the situation from a frame S in which the mirrors are at rest. The
light pulse travels a distance 2L between successive reflections from M1. As the speed of light is c,
2𝐿
the time elapsed between these reflections is 𝛥𝑡 = .
𝑐

Now consider another frame S’ moving with respect to the frame S with a speed v
towards the left. From this frame, the rod and the mirrors are moving towards the right with a
velocity v. The mirror M1 at the time of the second reflection is at a place different from where it was
at the time of the first reflection (figure above). If the time interval between these reflections is Δt’,
the simple geometry of the figure above shows that the light pulse travels a distance

𝑣𝛥𝑡 ′ 2
2√𝐿2 + ( )
2

between these reflections. Note that the length of the rod is unaltered as it moves in a direction
perpendicular to its length. As the speed of light is c, the time interval between the successive
reflections from M1, is

2 𝑣𝛥𝑡 ′ 2
𝛥𝑡 ′ = √𝐿2 + ( )
𝑐 2
2 2
𝑐𝛥𝑡 ′ 𝑣𝛥𝑡 ′
or, ( ) = 𝐿2 + ( )
2 2
2
𝛥𝑡 ′
or, (𝑐 2 − 𝑣 2 ) ( ) = 𝐿2
2

2𝐿⁄𝑐
or, 𝛥𝑡 ′ =
√1−𝑣 2 ⁄𝑐 2

𝛥𝑡
or, 𝛥𝑡 ′ = = 𝛾𝛥𝑡 … (1)
√1−𝑣 2 ⁄𝑐 2

1
where 𝛾 = .
√1−𝑣 2 ⁄𝑐 2

5
 We shall use this factor again and again hence a symbol γ is assigned to it. Note that 𝛾 > 1.
The time interval between the occurrences of the same two events is different as measured from
different frames. In frame S, both E1 and E2 occur at the same place. The time interval measured
from such a frame where the two events occur at the same place is called proper time interval. The
time interval measured by a frame where the events occur at different places is called improper
time interval. Here Δt is proper and Δt’ is improper time interval. According to equation (1),
The proper time interval between the occurrences of two events is smaller than the
improper time interval by the factor γ.
This phenomenon is called time dilation.

The apparatus described above may be treated as a clock. Each reflection from the mirror M1 can be
thought of as a tick of the clock. We shall call it a light-beam clock. We see that when the clock is
stationary with respect to the observer, it ticks at an interval 2L/c and when it moves with respect
to the observer, it ticks at an interval γ (2L/c). Thus,
A moving clock runs slower than a stationary clock by a factor of γ.
Importance of Perspective
With the above experiment, the question now arises, whose time is really slowed down? Is it
S, or is it S’ ? Strangely enough, both viewpoints are valid — but only while both are in constant
motion. Suppose A and B are two clocks moving with respect to each other. As seen from the frame
of A, B runs slower and as seen from the frame of B, A runs slower.

PROPER TIME INTERVAL

The concept of proper and improper time interval is valid for any two events and not only
for two ticks of a clock.
Consider two events E1 and E2. Suppose, E1 occurs at 𝑥 = 0 at a time 𝑡 = 0 and E2 occurs at
𝑥 = 𝐿 at a time t as seen from a frame S (figure below).

Suppose a clock C is at 𝑥 = 0 at 𝑡 = 0 and moves along the x-axis with a speed L/t. At time
t, this clock will be at 𝑥 = 𝐿. So, this same clock is present at both the events E1 and E2.
Consider a frame S’ moving along the x-axis at a speed L/t with respect to S. In this frame,
the clock is at rest and both the events are measured on the same clock. In other words, both the
events take place at the same place in S’.
As seen from S, the time interval between the events is t. The clock C is moving with respect
to S and hence runs slower by a factor γ. The time interval between the events as measured by this
𝑡
clock is 𝑡 ′ = . This is also the same interval between E1 and E2 in the frame S’ and hence is the
γ
proper time interval.
In the frame S’, the events can be recorded by a single clock. All other frames where two
clocks are needed to record the events, give improper time intervals. The proper time interval is
smaller than an improper time interval by a factor of γ.

6
 Moving clocks tick more slowly, but perspective matters.

To illustrate, let’s assume that when the astronaut left Earth, she and her friend were the
same age. When she leaves, the spaceship accelerates away from Earth. When she returns, the
spaceship decelerates to avoid a crash landing. In both leaving and returning, the spaceship changes
its frame of reference, and our astronaut can feel the change of motion. Experiments conducted
inside the spaceship during acceleration and deceleration would show that something’s
changing. This breaks the symmetry of the situation, and when the spaceship lands back on Earth,
our astronaut really will be younger than her Earthbound counterpart.

Moving Objects Contract in Space (Length Contraction)

Another consequence of special relativity is that fast-moving objects appear to contract in
size, in the direction of their motion (and again, this gets reversed depending on whose perspective
you’re looking from).

Consider the light-beam clock that was discussed earlier. Suppose it is moved at a velocity v
along its length with respect to an observer (figure given below).

As the rod in the light-beam clock is now moving parallel to its length, we do not know
whether the rod retains its length or not. Suppose the length of the rod is L′ in the frame S.
Consider a light pulse reflected from M1 and moving towards M2. Now, M2 is itself moving with
velocity v in the same direction. Suppose that the pulse strikes M2 at the position M2’ and that it has
taken a time Δt’ to go from the position M1 to M2’. The mirror M2 has moved ahead a distance 𝑣𝛥𝑡1′
so that the pulse has moved a distance 𝐿′ + 𝑣𝛥𝑡1′ before striking M2. But the speed of light pulse is c
so that it must travel a distance 𝑐𝛥𝑡1′ in time 𝛥𝑡1′ . Thus,

𝑐𝛥𝑡1′ = 𝐿′ + 𝑣𝛥𝑡1′
𝐿′
or, 𝛥𝑡1′ = .
𝑐+𝑣

7
Similarly, the time taken by the pulse in its return journey from 𝑀2 to 𝑀1 (it strikes 𝑀1 at the
position 𝑀1′ ) is
𝐿′
𝛥𝑡2′ = .
𝑐+𝑣
The total time elapsed between successive reflections from 𝑀1 is, therefore,
𝐿′ 𝐿′
𝛥𝑡 ′ = 𝛥𝑡1′ + 𝛥𝑡2′ = +
𝑐−𝑣 𝑐+𝑣
2𝐿′ 𝑐
= . …(i)
𝑐2 − 𝑣2
But 𝛥𝑡 ′ is the improper time interval between the two reflections as they occur at different
places. An observer, stationary with respect to the rod of the light-beam block, measures this
interval to be 𝛥𝑡 = 2𝐿⁄𝑐 which is the proper time interval between the same two events. Thus, from
the equation (i),

𝛥𝑡 ′ = (𝛥𝑡)γ
2𝐿
= ( )γ …(ii)
𝑐
Using (i) and (ii),

an(ii)
or, 2𝐿′ 𝑐 2𝐿
2 2
=
𝑐 −𝑣 𝑐√1 − 𝑣 2 ⁄𝑐 2
𝐿′ 𝐿
or, =
2 2
(1 − 𝑣 ⁄𝑐 ) √1 − 𝑣 2 ⁄𝑐 2

or, 𝐿′ = 𝐿√1 − 𝑣 2 ⁄𝑐 2 = 𝐿/γ …(2)

The length of a rod is contracted by a factor of γ if it moves parallel to its length. The length
measured by an observer at rest with respect to the rod is called its rest length or proper length.
Thus,
The length of a rod moving parallel to itself is shorter than its rest length by the factor γ. This
phenomenon is called length contraction.

Those moving faster than you appear to contract in size (in the direction of their motion).

8
 This follows from the distortion of time—after all, you can measure the length of something
by the amount of space something travels through time (light-years, light-seconds). And while it’s
tricky to imagine measuring the length of a moving object from someone else’s perspective, length
contraction is a real, physical effect, and not just an outcome of imprecise measurements.
Unlike the age differences that can arise from time dilation, there are no residual effects due
to length contraction once the moving object and the observer are reunited.

The Four Dimensions of Spacetime

Following from this, rather than thinking of three dimensions of space and one separate
dimension of time, we can consider them as four dimensions of “spacetime”. The faster you travel
through space, the slower you travel through time, and vice versa.

Spacetime
Minkowski space or Spacetime is a mathematical model that combines the three dimensions
of space and one dimension of time into a single four-dimensional manifold. Spacetime diagrams can
be used to visualize relativistic effects, such as why different observers perceive differently where
and when events occur.
Until the 2th century, it was assumed that the three-dimensional geometry of the universe
(its special expression in terms of coordinates, distances, and directions) was independent of one-
dimensional time. Albert Einstein helped develop the idea of spacetime as part of his theory of
relativity. Prior to his pioneering work, scientists had two separate theories to explain physical
phenomena: Isaac Newton's laws of physics described the motion of massive objects, while James
Clerk Maxwell's electromagnetic models explained the properties of light. However, in 1905, Einstein
based a work on special relativity.

Non-relativistic classical mechanics treats time as a universal quantity of measurement

which is uniform throughout space, and separate from space. Classical mechanics assumes that time
has a constant rate of passage, independent of the observer's state of motion, or anything external.
Furthermore, it assumes that space is Euclidean; it assumes that space follows the geometry of
common sense.

In the context of special relativity, time cannot be separated from the three dimensions of
space, because the observed rate at which time passes for an object depends on the object's velocity
relative to the observer. General relativity also provides an explanation of how gravitational fields
can slow the passage of time for an object as seen by an observer outside the field.

9
 In ordinary space, a position is specified by three numbers, known as dimensions. In the
Cartesian coordinate system, these are called x, y, and z. A position in spacetime is called an event,
and requires four numbers to be specified: the three-dimensional location in space, plus the position
in time (figure given above). An event is represented by a set of coordinates x, y, z and t. Space time
is thus four dimensional. Mathematical events have zero duration and represent a single point in
spacetime.

Mathematically, spacetime is a manifold, which is to say, it appears locally "flat" near each
point in the same way that, at small enough scales, a globe appears flat. A scale factor, 𝑐 (speed of
light) relates distances measured in space with distances measured in time. The magnitude of this
scale factor, along with the fact that spacetime is a manifold, implies that at ordinary, non-relativistic
speeds and at ordinary, human-scale distances, there is little that humans might observe which is
noticeably different from what they might observe if the world were Euclidean. It was only with the
advent of sensitive scientific measurements in the mid-1800s, such as the Fizeau experiment and the
Michelson–Morley experiment, that puzzling discrepancies began to be noted between observation
versus predictions based on the implicit assumption of Euclidean space.

Mathematical Definition
Minkowski spacetime is a 4-dimensional coordinate system in which the axes are given by
(𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑧, 𝑐𝑡) or (𝑥 1 , 𝑥 2 , 𝑥 3 , 𝑥 4 ). Here we have written 𝑐𝑡 as 𝑥 4 , time is measured in units of speed of
light times the time coordinates this is because the unit of time should be same as the unit for space.

The differential for arc length in spacetime is given by the equation:

𝑑𝑠 2 = −𝑐 2 𝑑𝑡 2 + 𝑑𝑥 2 + 𝑑𝑦 2 + 𝑑𝑧 2
This equation has a metric tensor of spacetime given by:
−1 0 0 0
0 1 0 0
𝑔𝑢𝑣 =[ ]
0 0 1 0
0 0 0 1
As stated before, spacetime is flat everywhere.

10
Minkowski Diagrams
The scientist used a separate graphing system called Minkowski diagrams to properly
demonstrate the properties of Lorentz transformation and relate the Newtonian mechanics to
relativistic mechanics using proper graphical methods.

In the image above, different coordinate systems will not agree on the object’s position or
spatial orientation in time. We can see that there is one spatial axis, i.e., 𝑥-axis, and the other is the
time axis, i.e., 𝑐𝑡-axis.

The Minkowski Spacetime has a different set of rules for graphing, which are as follows:
𝑣
• 𝑡𝑎𝑛𝛩 = is the angle between the 𝑥-axis and 𝑥`-axis where 𝑣 is the object’s
𝑐
velocity.
• The speed of light in the spacetime always makes an angle of 45° with either axis.

Minkowski Space in General Relativity

Einstein used the following equation in the general theory of relativity.
1
𝑅𝑢𝑣 − 𝑔𝑢𝑣 𝑅 = 8𝛱𝑇𝑢𝑣
2
This equation allows the spacetime to actually curve the resulting effects are those of the
gravity.

Theory of Relativity
Relativity is a theorem formulated by Albert Einstein, which states that space and time are
relative, and all motion must be relative to a frame of reference. It is a notion that states’ laws of
physics are the same everywhere.

It states 2 postulates:

• There is no absolute reference frame. One can measure velocity if the object or
momentum is only in relation to other objects.
• The speed of light is constant irrespective of who measures it or how fast the person
measuring it is moving.

Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity encompasses two theories: Special Relativity Theory
and General Relativity Theory.

11
Special Theory of Relativity
Einstein first introduced this term in the year 1905. It is a theorem that deals with the
structure of space-time. Einstein explained this theory based on two postulates:

• The laws of physics are the same for all, irrespective of the observer’s velocity.
• The speed of light is always constant regardless of the motion of the light source or the
motion of the observer.

The consequences of this theory have been discussed in detail previously. They are,

• Time Dilation
• Length Shrinking
• Relativity of simultaneity
• Mass – Energy Equivalence: Study of relativity led to one of the greatest inventions, i.e.,
𝐸 = 𝑚𝑐 2 where 𝐸 is Energy, 𝑚 stands for mass and 𝑐 for the velocity of light.
Many scientists observed that the object’s mass increases with the velocity but never
knew how to calculate it. This equation is the answer to their problem, which explains
that the increased relativistic weight of the object is equal to the kinetic energy divided by
the square of the speed of light.

General Theory of Relativity

General Relativity theory, developed by Einstein in 1907-1915, states that being at rest in
the gravitational field and accelerating are identical physically.

For example, an observer can see the ball fall the same way on the rocket and on Earth. This
is due to the rocket’s acceleration, which equals 9.8 𝑚/𝑠2. This theory relates to Newton’s
gravitational theory and special relativity.

Some consequences of General Relativity

Some consequences of General Relativity are:

• Gravitational Time Dilation: Gravity influences the passage of time. Clocks in the
deeper gravitational wells run slower than in general gravitational levels.
• Light rays will bend in the gravitational field.
• The universe is expanding, and parts of it are moving away from Earth faster than
the speed of light.

12
 GRAVITY
In physics, gravity is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things
with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interactions,
approximately 1038 times weaker than the strong interaction, 1036 times weaker than the
electromagnetic force and 1029 times weaker than the weak interaction. As a result, it has no
significant influence at the level of subatomic particles. However, gravity is the most significant
interaction between objects at the macroscopic scale, and it determines the motion of planets, stars,
galaxies, and even light.

Understanding Gravity

Acceleration and Gravity can be Indistinguishable (Equivalence

Principle)
In the theory of general relativity, the equivalence principle is the equivalence of
gravitational and inertial mass, and Albert Einstein’s observation that the gravitational “force” is
experienced locally while standing on a massive body (such as the Earth) is the same as the pseudo-
force experienced by an observer in a non-inertial (accelerated) frame of reference.

Effective Mass
Mass is a property of any physical object; It is a measure of resistance to the acceleration in
the presence of external force. Effective mass is the terminology used in the general theory of
relativity, which talks about gravitational and inertial mass.

Gravity: Tendency of massive objects to attract each other. Gravitational force between two
bodies is given by
𝑀𝑚𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑦
𝐹=𝐺 …(i)
𝑟2
Where:

𝐺 is the universal gravitational constant

𝑀 is the mass of one body

𝑚𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑦 is the mass of the second body

𝑟 is the distance between them

Inertia: Resistance offered by the body against the change in its current state of motion.
Force involved here is given by

𝐹 = 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑎 × 𝑎 …(ii)
Where:

𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑎 is the inertial mass of the object

𝑎 is the acceleration of the object

13
Principle of equivalence comes up with an idea, saying (i) and (ii) are the same. That is
𝑀𝑚𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑦
𝐹=𝐺 = 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑎 × 𝑎
𝑟2
𝑀𝑚𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑦
or, 𝐺 = 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑎 × 𝑎
𝑟2
On rearranging the above equation, we get
𝑚𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑀
𝑎=( )×𝐺 2
𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑎 𝑟
Hence, mathematical equivalence is proved.

Example of Equivalence Principle

Imagine waking up in a spaceship, accelerating through space. Just as you’re pushed back in
the seat of an accelerating car, the accelerating spaceship pushes you to the side opposite the one
it’s accelerating towards. At a certain rate of acceleration, a set of scales could tell you that you
weigh exactly the same as you do when you’re at home on Earth.

In deep space, away from gravity, you could stand in an accelerating spaceship and weigh the
same as you would on Earth.

Is there any physical experiment you could do within the confines of your spaceship to tell
whether you really were accelerating through space (assuming there were no windows to look out
from), or if, instead, you were inside a spaceship stationary on the surface of Earth? Einstein said
no—just as Galileo imagined the indistinguishability between a person inside a smooth-sailing ship
(confined without windows) and a person on land, Einstein realised that the effects of acceleration
and gravity were indistinguishable too.

Einstein realised that the effects of acceleration and gravity are indistinguishable.

14
Space Warps Under Accelerated Motion
Once Einstein ad formulated the equivalence principle, gravity became less mysterious. He
could apply his knowledge of acceleration to better understand gravity.

You may know that acceleration doesn’t always mean a change in speed, like when you
speed up in a car, pushing you to the back of your seat. It can also mean a change in direction, like
when you go round a roundabout, causing you to lean towards the side of the car.

To extend this further, let’s imagine a cylindrical carnival ride where you and your fellow
passengers are pinned to the outer surface. The cylinder is rotated faster and faster until the
acceleration eases and the movement stays constant. Bet even once the speed is constant, you still
feel the accelerated motion — you feel yourself being pinned to the outer sedge of the ride.

In an object spinning at a constant rate, you feel the accelerated motion pinning you to the other
edge.

If this spinning ride was large enough and moving at a fast enough rate, you’d start to notice
some bizarre effects inside the ride itself, net just from the point of view of someone standing
outside it.

With every rotation, those at the edge of the ride travel the full circumference of the
cylinder — while at the very centre, there’s hardly any movement at all. So, if someone stood in the
very centre of the ride (perhaps held by a brace, stopping them from falling to the edge), they would
notice all those abnormal effects we saw under special relativity — that those on the edge will
contract in length, and their clocks will tick at a slower rate.

Gravity is the Curvature of Spacetime

In general relativity, the effects of gravitation are ascribed to spacetime curvature instead of
a force. Einstein began to toy with this idea in the form of the equivalence principle, a discovery
which he later described as "the happiest thought of my life." In this theory, free fall is considered to
be equivalent to inertial motion, meaning that free-falling inertial objects are accelerated relative to
non-inertial observers on the ground. In contrast to Newtonian physics, Einstein believed that it was
possible for this acceleration to occur without any force being applied to the object.

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 In Einstein’s view of the world, gravity is the curvature of spacetime caused by massive objects.

Einstein proposed that spacetime is curved by matter, and that free-falling objects are
moving along locally straight paths in curved spacetime. These straight paths are called geodesics. As
in Newton's first law of motion, Einstein believed that a force applied to an object would cause it to
deviate from a geodesic. For instance, people standing on the surface of the Earth are prevented
from following a geodesic path because the mechanical resistance of the Earth exerts an upward
force on them. This explains why moving along the geodesics in spacetime is considered inertial.

Einstein Field Equations

The Einstein field equations are a system of 10 partial differential equations which describe
how matter affects the curvature of spacetime. The system is often expressed in the form

𝐺𝜇𝑣 + 𝛬𝑔𝜇𝑣 = 𝜅𝑇𝜇𝑣

Where:

𝐺𝜇𝑣 is the Einstein tensor

𝑔𝜇𝑣 is the metric tensor

𝑇𝜇𝑣 is the stress-energy tensor

𝛬 is the cosmological constant

𝐺 is the Newtonian constant of gravitation

𝑐 is the speed of light

8𝜋𝐺
𝜅= is referred to as the Einstein gravitational constant.
𝑐4

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 A major area of research is the discovery of exact solutions to the Einstein field equations.
Solving these equations amounts to calculating a precise value for the metric tensor (which defines
the curvature and geometry of spacetime) under certain physical conditions. There is no formal
definition for what constitutes such solutions, but most scientists agree that they should be
expressible using elementary functions or linear differential equations. Some of the most notable
solutions of the equations include:

• The Schwarzschild solution, which describes spacetime surrounding a spherically symmetric

non-rotating uncharged massive object. For compact enough objects, this solution
generated a black hole with a central singularity. At points far away from the central mass,
the accelerations predicted by the Schwarzschild solution are practically identical to those
predicted by Newton's theory of gravity.

An illustration of the Schwarzschild metric, which describes spacetime around a spherical,

uncharged, and nonrotating object with mass

• The Reissner–Nordström solution, which analyses a non-rotating spherically symmetric

object with charge and was independently discovered by several different researchers
between 1916 and 1921. In some cases, this solution can predict the existence of black holes
with double event horizons.
• The Kerr solution, which generalizes the Schwarzschild solution to rotating massive objects.
Because of the difficulty of factoring in the effects of rotation into the Einstein field
equations, this solution was not discovered until 1963.
• The Kerr–Newman solution for charged, rotating massive objects. This solution was derived
in 1964, using the same technique of complex coordinate transformation that was used for
the Kerr solution.
• The cosmological Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker solution, discovered in 1922 by
Alexander Friedmann and then confirmed in 1927 by Georges Lemaître. This solution was
revolutionary for predicting the expansion of the Universe, which was confirmed seven years
later after a series of measurements by Edwin Hubble. It even showed that general relativity
was incompatible with a static universe, and Einstein later conceded that he had been wrong
to design his field equations to account for a Universe that was not expanding.

Today, there remain many important situations in which the Einstein field equations have not
been solved. Chief among these is the two-body problem, which concerns the geometry of

17
spacetime around two mutually interacting massive objects (such as the Sun and the Earth, or the
two stars in a binary star system). The situation gets even more complicated when considering the
interactions of three or more massive bodies (the “n-body problem”), and some scientists suspect
that the Einstein field equations will never be solved in this context. However, it is still possible to
construct an approximate solution to the field equations in the n-body problem by using the
technique of post-Newtonian expansion. In general, the extreme nonlinearity of the Einstein field
equations makes it difficult to solve them in all but the most specific cases.

Tests of General Relativity

Testing the predictions of general relativity has historically been difficult, because they are
almost identical to the predictions of Newtonian gravity for small energies and masses. Still, since its
development, an ongoing series of experimental results have provided support for the theory.

Gravity Bends Light

In 1919, the British astrophysicist Arthur Eddington was able to confirm the predicted
gravitational lensing of light during that year's solar eclipse. Eddington measured starlight
deflections twice those predicted by Newtonian corpuscular theory, in accordance with the
predictions of general relativity. Although Eddington's analysis was later disputed, this experiment
made Einstein famous almost overnight and caused general relativity to become widely accepted in
the scientific community.

The 1919 total solar eclipse provided one of the first opportunities to test the predictions of
general relativity

Gravity Slows the Passage of Time

In 1959, American physicists Robert Pound and Glen Rebka performed an experiment in
which they used gamma rays to confirm the prediction of gravitational time dilation. By sending the
rays down a 74-foot tower and measuring their frequency at the bottom, the scientists confirmed
that light is redshifted as it moves towards a source of gravity. The observed redshift also supported
the idea that time runs more slowly in the presence of a gravitational field.

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GPS Technology Needs Offsetting
While the application of Einstein’s theories may seem so far from everyday experience,
consider this: satellite positioning technology — whether used on your phone, or by pilots in planes,
or for logistics and industry the world over — would not work without our understanding of
relativity.

The Global Positioning System (GPS) consists of satellites that orbit Earth 20,000 km above
ground at a speed of around 14,000 km/h. On board each satellite is an atomic clock, and your
position on the planet can be determined by checking the time broadcast by the satellites above you
and comparing those times against the known position of each satellite. Relativity tells us that these
clocks will tick more slowly than those on Earth — so if we weren’t able to correct for these
differences, we wouldn’t be able to pinpoint our location on Earth to an accuracy down to a few
metres. Seen another way, the accuracy of GPS acts as further proof of Einstein’s theories.

Moving and Rotating Objects Make Additional Twists and Warps in

Spacetime
Two more predictions of general relativity are the geodetic effect and the frame-dragging
effect. Both effects have been confirmed by a range of experiments, including the Gravity Probe B
satellite. Equipped with extremely sensitive gyroscopes, this satellite measured the tiny twists and
warps in spacetime made by Earth as it moves and rotates through space.

The Universe Ripples as Objects Move and Collide

Since the curvature of spacetime is dynamical, moving objects should create ripples in space
that permeate through the universe. Most of these ripples are too small to notice, but the more
extreme the event, the higher the chance we can detect it. These ripples have been named
gravitational waves, and we’ve found them.

Gravitational Waves

Echoes of Cataclysm from Far Away

Imagine two very massive objects, such as black holes. If those objects were to collide, they
could potentially create an extreme disturbance in the fabric of spacetime, moving outwards like the
ripples in a pond. But how far away could such waves be felt? Einstein predicted that gravitational
waves existed, but believed they would be too small to detect by the time they reached us here on
Earth.

So it was with great excitement that on February 11 2016, the scientific community was
abuzz with the announcement that a gravitational wave had been detected. We needed instruments
capable of detecting a signal one-ten-thousandth the diameter of a proton (10-19 meter). That’s
exactly what the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) equipment, operated
by the California Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, can do.

The LIGO and Virgo Experiments

On 11 February 2016, the LIGO collaboration announced the first observation of
gravitational waves, from a signal detected at 09:50:45 GMT on 14 September 2015 of two black
holes with masses of 29 and 36 solar masses merging about 1.3 billion light-years away. During the

19
final fraction of a second of the merger, it released more than 50 times the power of all the stars in
the observable universe combined. The signal increased in frequency from 35 to 250 Hz over 10
cycles (5 orbits) as it rose in strength for a period of 0.2 second. The mass of the new merged black
hole was 62 solar masses. Energy equivalent to three solar masses was emitted as gravitational
waves. The signal was seen by both LIGO detectors in Livingston and Hanford, with a time difference
of 7 milliseconds due to the angle between the two detectors and the source. The signal came from
the Southern Celestial Hemisphere, in the rough direction of (but much farther away than) the
Magellanic Clouds. The gravitational waves were observed in the region more than 5 sigma (in other
words, 99.99997% chances of showing/getting the same result), the probability of finding enough to
have been assessed/considered as the evidence/proof in an experiment of statistical physics.

Since then, LIGO and Virgo have reported more gravitational wave observations from
merging black hole binaries.

The 1919 total solar eclipse provided one of the first opportunities to test the predictions of
general relativity
On 16 October 2017, the LIGO and Virgo collaborations announced the first-ever detection
of gravitational waves originating from the coalescence of a binary neutron star system. The
observation of the GW170817 transient, which occurred on 17 August 2017, allowed for
constraining the masses of the neutron stars involved between 0.86 and 2.26 solar masses. Further
analysis allowed a greater restriction of the mass values to the interval 1.17–1.60 solar masses, with
the total system mass measured to be 2.73–2.78 solar masses. The inclusion of the Virgo detector in
the observation effort allowed for an improvement of the localization of the source by a factor of 10.
This in turn facilitated the electromagnetic follow-up of the event. In contrast to the case of binary
black hole mergers, binary neutron star mergers were expected to yield an electromagnetic
counterpart, that is, a light signal associated with the event. A gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) was
detected by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, occurring 1.7 seconds after the gravitational
wave transient. The signal, originating near the galaxy NGC 4993, was associated with the neutron
star merger. This was corroborated by the electromagnetic follow-up of the event (AT 2017gfo),
involving 70 telescopes and observatories and yielding observations over a large region of the
electromagnetic spectrum which further confirmed the neutron star nature of the merged objects
and the associated kilonova.

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 In 2021, the detection of the first two neutron star-black hole binaries by the LIGO and
VIRGO detectors was published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, allowing to first set bounds on
the quantity of such systems. No neutron star-black hole binary had ever been observed using
conventional means before the gravitational observation.

Gravitational Wave Astronomy

The successful LIGO experiment has ushered in a new era of astronomy. Before now,
astronomers have largely focused on the study of the electromagnetic spectrum (including light and
radio waves). We’ve been able to discover a huge amount about our universe through that work, but
now we have a brand-new way to study the universe.

The discovery of gravitational waves gives astronomers a new ‘sense’ with which to explore the
universe, and so there will almost certainly be surprises ahead. What we do know is that this
technique will allow us to better understand the most massive objects in the universe such as black
holes, neutron stars, and supernovae; and it will provide us with a new window to study how the
universe formed.

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 CONCLUSION
Is our understanding complete?
While Einstein’s theory of gravity has been validated by experiment after experiment, this
does not mean our understanding is complete. In fact, we know that something’s not quite right.

One unanswered question is whether or not gravity is propagated by the graviton — the
proposed (but so-far undetected) particle responsible for gravitational interactions. Even more
pressing, we know that general relativity is, in its current form, incompatible with the other pillar of
modern physics: quantum mechanics. This is an indication that one or both theories are incomplete,
or that we’re missing some other key component.

Whether or not Einstein’s theory of gravity will remain unchanged is not known. But it has
produced many unexpected, unintuitive predictions that have been confirmed again and again for
over a hundred years. That’s the sign of a great scientific theory — it makes predictions that may not
be able to be proven at the time, but stand up to rigorous testing. This has been one of the greatest
journeys in the history of science, involving not just Newton and Einstein, but thinkers and doers all
around the world who have worked to put these theories to the test.

Even so, the schism between relativity and quantum mechanics remains. As for what’s next,
no one knows with certainty. However, there are a few theories — stringy, loopy, multi-dimensional
theories — unproven but with promise of becoming the next milestone in understanding our
cosmos.

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