Image source: Wikimedia Commons ( Newton / Einstein). Isaac Newton (1642-1726) and Albert Einstein (1879-1955) were pivotal in advancing our understanding of gravity. Let’s begin by looking at why Newton’s laws didn’t provide a complete picture of gravity. If so, we encourage you to keep pushing onwards, as it’s one of the greatest journeys in the history of science. GLOSSARY relativity The general idea that the results of experiments do not depend on the states of motion of observers, some of these concepts may boggle your mind. In this topic we’ll explore Einstein’s dynamic vision of gravity, including the recently measured phenomenon of gravitational waves. 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.

The predictions of Einstein’s theories have been validated time and time again. 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. But we had no idea how it worked until Einstein stepped in, painting a strange and unintuitive picture. Or is it?įor hundreds of years we’ve been able to predict the effects of gravity. Gravity is always there-it’s stable, it’s permanent, it’s unchanging. Lift your arm and feel how you are compelled to drop it again.

Take a moment to observe the effects of gravity.

Curved space graph