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The Harper Dictionary of Science in Everday Language: Scientific Terms Explained So You Can Really Understand Them

The Harper Dictionary of Science in Everday Language: Scientific Terms Explained So You Can... THE HARPER DICTIONARY OF SCIENCE IN EVERDAY LANGUAGE: SCIENTIFIC TERMS EXPLAINED SO YOU CAN REALLY UNDERSTAND THEM / Relativity The relativity theories of Albert Einstein (1879-1955) deal with the most fundamental descriptions of the physical universe: the concepts of time, space, motion, mass and gravitation. To attempt to "explain" (rather than describe) them here would be an act of presumption, for the following reasons: 1.Much heavy mathematics is involved. 2.The concepts of relativity are not readily accessible within our (relatively) crude experience, where the weight of a grain of salt is considered a small amount; where a rocket's escape velocity-- seven miles per second--is regarded as very high; where a clock gaining a second in ten years is labeled super-accurate. The ideas of relativity emerge only at the boundaries of such a world, in the domains of the super-small, the super-fast, the superlarge, the super-massive. And yet the proofs of relativity's seemingly wild assertions are quite evident and useful to physicists working with particle accelerators (atom smashers), astronomers studying galaxies, and mathematicians calculating the orbits of space ships. First, to help us cast loose from pre-relativity thinking, we will engage in a "thought experiment." Theoretical physicists delight in http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The Missouri Review University of Missouri

The Harper Dictionary of Science in Everday Language: Scientific Terms Explained So You Can Really Understand Them

Schneider, Herman,.
The Missouri Review , Volume 11 (3) – Oct 5, 1988
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Publisher
University of Missouri
Copyright
Copyright © The Curators of the University of Missouri.
ISSN
1548-9930
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Abstract

THE HARPER DICTIONARY OF SCIENCE IN EVERDAY LANGUAGE: SCIENTIFIC TERMS EXPLAINED SO YOU CAN REALLY UNDERSTAND THEM / Relativity The relativity theories of Albert Einstein (1879-1955) deal with the most fundamental descriptions of the physical universe: the concepts of time, space, motion, mass and gravitation. To attempt to "explain" (rather than describe) them here would be an act of presumption, for the following reasons: 1.Much heavy mathematics is involved. 2.The concepts of relativity are not readily accessible within our (relatively) crude experience, where the weight of a grain of salt is considered a small amount; where a rocket's escape velocity-- seven miles per second--is regarded as very high; where a clock gaining a second in ten years is labeled super-accurate. The ideas of relativity emerge only at the boundaries of such a world, in the domains of the super-small, the super-fast, the superlarge, the super-massive. And yet the proofs of relativity's seemingly wild assertions are quite evident and useful to physicists working with particle accelerators (atom smashers), astronomers studying galaxies, and mathematicians calculating the orbits of space ships. First, to help us cast loose from pre-relativity thinking, we will engage in a "thought experiment." Theoretical physicists delight in

Journal

The Missouri Review – University of Missouri

Published: Oct 5, 1988

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