A brilliant experiment proved Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity — but first, let us address the question: what is the theory of relativity about? An esteemed astronomer from Cambridge University, Dr. Matthew Bothwell, explained how the theory of relativity works and why it is so important. Bothwell tells us that he is not exaggerating when he speaks about how Einstein’s theory of relativity completely changed our comprehension of the universe. The complete modern cosmology cannot be understood without the outlines of Einstein’s work. He also claims that gravity was a thing of a mystery before Einstein and his work.
Sir Isaac Newton’s explanation for its behavior was excellent, but it didn’t help understand what it is. Newton himself was not satisfied with his model of it. The details of how gravity works are exceptional in Newton’s laws, when and how it happens. Still, the question of what is doing the pulling itself wasn’t answered. Earth’s influence on objects without physical contact remained a mystery. Newton admitted it was strange to him that one body can act upon another at a distance through a vacuum without the mediation of anything else, a great absurdity.
By describing the very nature of gravity, Einstein’s theory solved the mystery for the first time, and it is all about objects moving in curved spacetime. According to Einstein, space and time are the same things, a single construct that he named spacetime. No longer was space itself considered as a geometric plane as formulated by Newton. Gravity is a force that changes the spacetime geometric structure. Light bending around the sun is actually going straight the whole time; the space around the sun itself is being bent.
Professor Mike Cruise points out that astronomers from a century ago did actually confirm the general theory of relativity and in the process forever changed the way how we see the universe. This resident of the Royal Astronomical Society also said that the combined work of Eddington and Einstein is an excellent example of international collaboration in the tumultuous period after the first world war. It was a shining example of how science can overcome hostile barriers in such a time. Sadly, even Einstein’s theory did not answer all the questions of the universe because it doesn’t work with all of quantum mechanics.