Einstein 100 - Theory of General Relativity (Narrated by David Tennant)

[JohnnyMo]

Today is the 100th anniversary of the first presentation of the Einstein field equations, and as such, here's a short video about the theory of general relativity.

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XSAVqm0XBI[/media]

[Bat-shit]

What a cute little story.

[AcidGravy]

As an aspiring physicist, it's just things like general relativity that make me realise that when it comes down to it science doesn't prove anything. We're just trying to make sense of the world as we perceive it.

[Daniel Smith]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't it Einstein that first came up with the idea of dark matter but tossed it out because he thought it was rubbish?

[JohnnyMo]

[QUOTE=Daniel Smith;49187850]Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't it Einstein that first came up with the idea of dark matter but tossed it out because he thought it was rubbish?[/QUOTE]

Not quite but sort of. He initially put an extra term into the Einstein field equations (the cosmological constant term) because he had a philosophical liking for the idea of a static universe, and the cosmological constant would let him tune the universe so that it wouldn't expand or contract. Then he decided this was a bad idea, he referred to it as his "biggest blunder." Nowadays, we find that there [I]is[/I] a nonzero cosmological constant, which it causing the universe to expand. Dark energy is an explanation for where it comes from.