Bennett Ward

Lecture Highlights 4
3/14/12

The theory of general relativity changed the paradigm of physics by changing the very way
scientists looked at the mechanics of motion. At the core of general relativity is the replacement of
Newtonian laws of gravity with a new set of postulates. General Relativity postulates that instead of
gravitational force pulling objects together, objects are drawn towards each other because their natural
motion of a line (or more technically, a geodesic in four dimensional space time) takes them towards
depressions caused by larger objects in space time. This explanation accounts for several things which
Newtonian Gravity could not account for, including the apparent bending of light near massive objects.
When an observer appears to see a beam of light bend around a distant object, it does indeed follow a
curved path in three dimensional space, but in four dimensional space time, it indeed follows a straight
path expected of a beam with no mass.
A fundamental principle of General Relativity is the equivalence of gravitational and inertial
mass. Inertial mass is a measure of the force needed to move an object according to the formula F=ma.
Gravitational mass is calculated using Newton's formula for gravitation. It is a function of the inertial
mass of any two objects, the distance between them, and a constant. As it turns out, these two different
masses are always equal to each other. This leads to the phenomena of a heavy object falling at the
same rate as a lighter object, and also to the equivalence principle in general relativity. Because of the
equivalence, in most respects, an accelerated reference frame is indistinguishable from a gravitational
field. This is pretty intuitive; if a spaceship is accelerating at 9.8m/s2, observers inside it would be
pressed against the floor in the opposite direction of their acceleration in the same way they would be
pressed to the surface of the earth. The most important consequence of this principle is that it makes it
possible to achieve an inertial reference frame on earth by simply being in free fall, or orbiting the

earth. An object in free fall does not really accelerate it just appears to move faster over time due to
space time distortion as the curvature of space time becomes more pronounced closer to an object. This
can be replicated by an accelerated space ship only due to the equivalence of gravitational and inertial
mass.
A third consequence of General Relativity is the existence of Black Holes. A black hole is
formed when a large star can no longer perform nuclear fusion and collapses in on itself to a single
point. This point has the mass of the original star, and infinite density. Around the point (singularity) is
a cone of incredibly curved space time. This immense stretching creates massive time dilation and
length contraction effects, as well as large gravitational forces, and tidal effects, and blueshifting.
Surrounding the singularity is a non-material sphere known as the event horizon. The event horizon
is a distance from the singularity proportional to the mass of the singularity. This distance is known as
the Schwarzchild radius. To an observer, nothing can be seen beyond the event horizon because no light
can pass out of it. In fact, nothing inside the event horizon can escape it. Even for a star during
compression, when the star compresses past its own Schwarzchild radius, its fate is sealed and it must
eventually become a singularity.