LANGUAGE CENTER OF THE

UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DEL SANTA

“GENERAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY”

MONOGRAPH

STUDENT’S NAME: GOMER DAVID, LAVADO PALACIOS

CYCLE: CONVERSATION 1ST
DAYS: TUESDAY-THURSDAY-SATURDAY
SCHEDULE: 8:00 PM-10:00 PM
DATE: 09/09/17
TEACHER’S NAME: JUAN CARLOS RIVERA ALTAMIRANO
PRINCIPAL’S NAME: JUAN MARTINEZ GUILLEN

NUEVO CHIMBOTE – PERÚ

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 INTRODUCTION

Undoubtedly, one of the great revolutions of physics was the general theory of

relativity postulated by Albert Einstein in 1905. This theory indicates that gravity

is not a force as Newton had said, but a geometric effect of the universe. To this

day this theory has been accepted as the pillar that governs the macrocosm: from

our solar system to the great galaxies far from millions of light years from us.

In the first chapter we will talk about the beginnings that gave light to the general

theory of relativity, as well as the idea behind gravity based mainly on Newton's

theory of gravitation. In the second chapter we will defend the general theory of

relativity, for which we introduce bad principles and concepts to understand it,

and then finally define this wonderful idea about the universe; In addition, the

chapter has the evidence that reinforces this theory. In the third chapter we will

talk about GPS satellites and their atomic clocks, and gravitational lenses which

serve to find massive objects in the universe, which are current applications of

the theory of relativity in the modern world. The fourth chapter presents the

conclusions and final decisions of the monograph.

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 INDEX
INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 2

BEFORE EINSTEIN ........................................................................................... 4

The force of gravity ......................................................................................... 4

Mercury disturbances ..................................................................................... 5

A CURVATURE OF SPACE TIME ..................................................................... 6

Principle of Equivalence ................................................................................. 6

A deformed universe ....................................................................................... 6

Proof of general relativity ................................................................................ 9

GPS AND GRAVITATIONAL LENSES ............................................................ 11

GPS and General Relativity .......................................................................... 11

Gravitational lenses ...................................................................................... 12

CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................................... 13

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 BEFORE EINSTEIN

When we think of gravity comes the idea of that force that makes things fall to the

surface of the Earth, as Newton said 300 years ago. For Newton gravity was a

force experienced by bodies to have certain masses. This force forces the planets

to keep circling around the sun or the satellites around them. Newton confirms

his theory determining the lunar orbital period that we know is the lunar month,

using the distance previously estimated in Ancient Greece. In addition Newton's

theory perfectly described Newton's orbit or the trajectory of a pipe bullet.

The force of gravity

According to Newton, the force exerted between two bodies and separated by a

distance is proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional

to the square of the distance.

𝑚1 × 𝑚2
𝐹=𝐺
𝑑2

Within this empirical law, we have these important conclusions:

 Gravitational forces are always attractive. The fact that the planets

describe a closed orbit around the Sun indicates this fact. An attractive

force can also produce open orbits, but a repulsive force can never

produce closed orbits.

 They have infinite reach. Two bodies, however far away they may be,

experience this force.

 The force associated with gravitational interaction is central.

 The greater the distance, the less force of attraction, and the less distance

the greater the force of attraction.

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Mercury disturbances

Although Newton's theory of gravitation was accepted until the end of the 20th

century as true, there were anomalies that Newton's theory did not explain.

Astronomers discovered a difference in the expected position of the planet

Mercury which, according to Newton's physics, would be explained by the

presence of a planet whose gravitational field disturbed it. For years, astronomers

searched for that supposed planet named Vulcan, but they evidently did not find

it.

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 A CURVATURE OF SPACE TIME

Principle of Equivalence

Suppose we are in a space rocket is accelerating far in the empty space so that

there are practically no gravitational forces acting on the spacecraft. If the ship

has an acceleration of "1 g" we can stand on the floor and feel our normal weight.

In addition, if we release a ball, it will "fall" to the floor. Why? Because the ship is

accelerating upwards, but on the ball are not acting forces; if you are falling

behind. Inside the ship the ball will appear to have an acceleration of "1 g" down.

Let us now compare this situation with that of a spacecraft that remains at rest on

the surface of the earth. The result is that everything is the same. They will feel

tight to the floor, a ball will fall with a "1 g" acceleration, and so on. And then how

could we distinguish from within a spacecraft if we are posed or if we are

accelerating in free space? According to Einstein's principle of equivalence there

is no way to say it if we only perform measurements on the inside. This is

essential to understand that gravity is not a force, since there is an inability to

distinguish it with an accelerated non-inertial reference system. So what is

gravity?

A deformed universe

Einstein determined that gravity was not a force, but the consequence of the

deformation of space-time generated by anybody with mass. To understand it

better we will introduce new concepts. Imagine an insect that travels on a surface

without changing direction. If it cannot change direction then we can say that it

advances in a straight line. Now suppose that line is drawn on a ball. For the

insect that only sees in two dimensions the line is still straight, but it is curved in

a third dimension. A line with these characteristics is called geodesic.

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Now let's talk about space-time. As we know our universe can be divided into

three dimensions and Einstein introduced time as a fourth dimension. Let's take

only one dimension and time as shown in the image. The plane resulting from the

combination is the time space.

Let's say that there is no gravity, if we release an object this would remain there,

that is, it would not rise or fall. Let's translate this to the graphic.

As the graph shows, the object is still as time goes by. Now, if we throw an object

in zero gravity, it will continue to increase at the same speed without things like

air resistance or a roof with which it crashes: always upward by its own inertia. In

the chart this means drawing an upwardly sloping line.

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Now, according to what I post Einstein gravity is like a flexion in this graph of

space time. So let's look at the consequences of this when we convert our graph

into a curved space-time.

Let us repeat the two previous experiments. Taking into account gravity and the

general theory of relativity, if we throw an object upwards, we would have the

same constant horizontal line as we saw before. The same will happen with the

object that was thrown upwards. But if we adjust the space-time to be able to

visualize the two experiments from our perspective then the two phenomena

become clearer and daily. So, from our perspective, the ball that did not rise, with

gravity seems to fall. On the other hand, the ball with uniform speed rises,

decelerates and then lowers. That is, they follow geodesic trajectories as the

example we place, but the curvature is not in a third dimension but in a fourth

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dimension. Its movements are straight, but embedded in a curved space-time.

This can be seen in the following graph.

Thus, according to the theory of relativity, the ellipses of the planets around the

sun are also geodesic. These are straight in three dimensions but curved in a

fourth dimension. This is the theory of relativity, a theory that says that gravity is

nothing more than a property of space-time.

Proof of general relativity

The theory of general relativity has been confirmed in numerous forms since its

appearance. For example, the theory predicts that the line of the universe of a

ray of light curves in the vicinity of a massive object like the Sun. The first

empirical test of the theory of relativity was in this respect. During the eclipses of

1919 and 1922 scientific expeditions were organized to make such observations,

among them the expedition of Arthur Eddington. The apparent positions of the

stars were then compared with their apparent positions some months later, when

they appeared at night, far from the Sun. Einstein predicted an apparent

displacement of the position of 1.745 arc seconds for a star located just at the

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edge of the Sun , and less and less displacements of the more distant stars. It

was shown that his calculations on the curvature of light in the presence of a

gravitational field were accurate. In recent years, similar measurements have

been made of the deviation of radio waves from distant quasars using radio

interferometers. The measurements yielded results that coincided with a

precision of 1% with the values predicted by general relativity.

Another confirmation of general relativity is related to the perihelion of the planet

Mercury. As we mentioned earlier, it had been known for years that the perihelion

(the point at which Mercury is closest to the Sun) revolves around the Sun once

every three million years, and that movement could not be fully explained by

classical theories. In contrast, relativity theory does predict all aspects of motion,

and recent radar measurements have confirmed the coincidence of actual data

with theory with 0.5% accuracy. There have been many more checks of the

theory, and so far all seem to confirm it.

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 GPS AND GRAVITATIONAL LENSES

Many years after its discovery, general relativity was a source of general interest

in the scientific community, both as a basis for new scientific research and as

applications in the modern world. The most prominent applications are GPS and

relativistic effects, and gravitational lenses. In addition, although time left them

behind, televisions at some point in the last century also took into account the

formulas of relativity in the design of the magnets that directed the electrons that

finally collided against a screen.

GPS and General Relativity

The Global Positioning System (GPS) consists of a constellation of at least 24

satellites orbiting the Earth in 6 different orbital planes, and at an altitude of about

20,200 km above the Earth's surface. These satellites constantly emit radio

signals that are received by the GPS receiver that we have with us. Basically, the

signal emitted by each satellite at a given instant informs the receiver of two

things: the position of the satellite at the time of emitting that signal and the time,

or the moment, at which the signal was emitted. The latter is possible thanks to

the fact that each GPS satellite carries a very precise atomic clock.

Clocks on GPS satellites require synchronization with those on the ground for

which the general theory of relativity and the special theory of relativity must be

taken into account. The three relativistic effects are: time dilation, gravitational

frequency change, and the effects of eccentricity. The relativistic deceleration of

time due to satellite speed is about 1 part of 1010, the gravitational dilation of time

makes the satellite clock about 5 parts between 10 10 faster than an Earth-based

clock, and the Sagnac effect due to rotation in relation to the receivers on Earth.

Failure to take into account the effect of satellite speed and its gravity on a ground

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observer would result in a shift of 38 microseconds per day, which in turn would

cause errors of several kilometers in the determination of the position.

Gravitational lenses

In astrophysics a gravitational lens, also called a gravitational lens, is formed

when light from distant, bright objects like quasars curves around a massive

object (like a galaxy) between the emitting object and the receiving object.

There are three kinds of gravitational lens phenomena:

1. Strong: easily visible distortions such as Einstein ring formation, arcs and

multiple images.

2. Weak: weak distortion of background objects that can be detected only by

analyzing a large number of background objects.

3. Microlens: without apparent distortion in shape but with weak variations in

the light intensity of background objects.

A gravitational lens acts on all types of electromagnetic radiation and not only on

visible light. In fact, these types of lenses lack chromatic aberration, that is, their

effect does not depend on the wavelength of the light on which they act, but is

equal for all ranges of the electromagnetic spectrum, be it optical, infrared,

ultraviolet or any other. This allows to be able to analyze the objects amplified by

the lens by the usual techniques of photometry or astronomical spectroscopy.

Effects of gravitational lenses have been proposed on microwave background

radiation and on some observations of radius and x-rays.

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 CONCLUSIONS

 Until the beginning of the 19th century Newton's theory of gravitation

explained well the phenomenon of gravity.

 The inability to distinguish the gravity of the effects of acceleration from a

non-uncertain reference system is called the Principle of Equivalence, and

it is essential to understand that gravity is not a force.

 According to general relativity the universe has four dimensions: three

spatial (length, width and height) and one temporal.

 Gravity is an attractive force that in the current scientific community is

conceived as I think Einstein: as an effect of the curvature of space-time.

If you think of the universe as a cube, the presence of any object with mass

would generate a deformation of that cube.

 Gravity has the peculiarity of acting at great distances, but always exerting

an attractive effect.

 According to Einstein, the light of the stars passing near the sun should

deviate. This is because the light is attracted by the solar gravitational field.

 A prediction of the general theory of relativity is that of gravitational lettings.

By this phenomenon, which is also related to the deformation of space-

time due to gravity, the images of certain stars and distant galaxies arrive

at the Earth deformed.

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