8/8/2019 spacetime by Einstien

1/16

1Space, Time and Dr. Einstein

Spacetime and Einstein

1905: Clerk in Patent Office

Grand Old Man!

Schoolboy

8/8/2019 spacetime by Einstien

2/16

2Space, Time and Dr. Einstein

Einstein's Three Great Discoveries

1. He verified the existence of atoms by

explaining the zig-zag motion of pollengrains in water, noticed 80 years earlier.

1. He proved that light could be understood as little

bullets of energy (or particles).

2. He developed the theory of relativity, in which

moving observers disagree about simple

measurements like time and distance.

Discovery #3 showed that space and time are

mixed up . . . something that even today seems

pretty weird.

8/8/2019 spacetime by Einstien

3/16

3Space, Time and Dr. Einstein

Question: If we disagree about measurements, what can we agree on?

Answer: The speed of light is the same for everyone!

Some unintended consequences:

From your point of view moving things seem:

But the speeds have to be very big to make much difference.

You can go faster and faster but never ever reach the speed of light!

Space and time get mixed up . . . Spacetime!

Shorter

Slower

Heavier

8/8/2019 spacetime by Einstien

4/16

4Space, Time and Dr. Einstein

4 MILES

Fermilabs Accelerator pushes protons to:

0.9999995 x (speed of light)(This is about 186,000 miles per second!)

Every second, they go around the 4-mile ringabout 50,000 times!

The protons: Seem 1000 times heavier. Seem 1000 times thinner. Have clocks that run 1000times slower.

8/8/2019 spacetime by Einstien

5/16

5Space, Time and Dr. Einstein

Space & time are bent, or curved, by matter.

This is gravity.

Planets, moons and baseballs goas straight as they can.

www.unmuseum.org

8/8/2019 spacetime by Einstien

6/16

6Space, Time and Dr. Einstein

May 29, 1919The eclipse that changed the universe . . .

And proved Einstein right!Space is bent by Suns gravity!

www.unmuseum.org

.

.

.

8/8/2019 spacetime by Einstien

7/16

7Space, Time and Dr. Einstein

Space is bent by matter.

Multiple images (like ripples on a pond)

Same GalaxySee it twice!

8/8/2019 spacetime by Einstien

8/16

8Space, Time and Dr. Einstein

hydrogen

neon

Spectral lines -

Cosmic Barcodes

8/8/2019 spacetime by Einstien

9/16

9Space, Time and Dr. Einstein

www.astro.ucla.edu/%7Ewright/doppler.htm

Blue shift

Red shift

eeeeyaooww!!

(Object moving away)

(Object moving toward)

8/8/2019 spacetime by Einstien

10/16

10Space, Time and Dr. Einstein

A tinyspot from the Hubble Space Telescope

Every blob is a galaxy with ~100,000,000,000 stars.

BIG BANG13.5 billion years agoBut not BIG, TINY!

All are rushing away from us,

RED SHIFT . . . expanding Universe!

Dr. Hubble (Wheaton) discovered that.

8/8/2019 spacetime by Einstien

11/16

11Space, Time and Dr. Einstein

Extrasolar Planets

Graphic of the Neptune-Mass companion to GJ 436ex

op

lane

ts.o

rg/n

ep

tun

e_w

eb/n

ep

tune

_grap

hic

s.h

tml

SPEEDTO/FROM

US

TIME

Artists impression

8/8/2019 spacetime by Einstien

12/16

12Space, Time and Dr. Einstein

The Cosmological Constant

Einsteins greatest blunder . . .

or perhaps his greatest legacy?

a case for the accelerating Universe

8/8/2019 spacetime by Einstien

13/16

13Space, Time and Dr. Einstein

Black Holes

From Astronomy Picture of the Daywww.phy.mtu.edu/apod/ap971107.html The Black Hole is invisible,

but you can see stuff around it.

8/8/2019 spacetime by Einstien

14/16

8/8/2019 spacetime by Einstien

15/16

15Space, Time and Dr. Einstein

Black hole candidate in the spiral galaxy

8/8/2019 spacetime by Einstien

16/16

16Space, Time and Dr. Einstein