General relativity was the discovery of  the century,How come are scientist now reverting to Aether Theories?
443065
because according to general relativity E=mc^2, so you can say that energy is a form of mass, but when you include this to the uncertainty principle it's incorrect to say that void has no energy (x & v = 0) so you have to go the other way, since there's a lot of void out there you should have the equivalent mass, and since mass is gravity we should be seeing the BIG CRUNCH right now, obviously that ain't happening, so one of the two theories must be wrong, but scientists prefer to say that both of 'em r parcially or entirely wrong
1113022
Wow.  You're asking if the cosmos is producing reality.... Hmm... \n\nThere are two theories that are generally accepted as the most plausible; General Relativity, and Quantum Mechanics.  General Relativity deals with things on a large scale, like the movement of planets, asteroids, people, etc.  Quantum Mechanics deals with the actions of things on a much, much smaller scale, the building blocks of matter, particles much smaller than the particles that make up protons and neutrons.  The problem is rectifying these theories, because at the moment, they don't agree with each other, but they're the best we have.  A new emerging theory is String Theory, which blends them together reasonably well.  If you want to learn about them, a simple Google search will tell you all you need to know.
19768
because, it meant that energy and mass are basically the same thing.  this is pretty contrary to our everyday experience, and in fact it is only a noticeable effect when there are very large energies involved.  so, at the time there was basically no experimental evidence to show that this equation was correct!  nevertheless einstein derived this equation, and the rest of the theory of general relativity, based on mathematical principles alone.  only afterwards were experiments done and he was shown to be right!  \n\nthis is part of the reason einstein is so celebrated as a genius - his correct prediction of the equivalence of energy and mass.
363660
There are many ways of disproving Relativity.  All you'd need to do is test one of General Relativity's many predictions and find a result that was contrary to what the theory predicts.  For instance, the next solar eclipse, you could look at the stars near the sun and see whether or not their light had been bent by the presence of the sun's mass.  Or, you could show that GPS systems do not work, since the GPS satelites rely on general relativistic equations to keep them synchronized.  Or, you could fly an atomic clock around the world and show that time does not move more slowly for objects in fast motion than it does for a clock on the ground.  The problem with disproving General Relativity is that the theory has been tested millions of times over the last century, and no one has found it to be wrong yet.  Not once.\n\nWhat you might be able to do, though, is find a theory that is more fundamental than relativity for explaining the happenings of the universe.  There are questions about the universe that General Relativity has no answers for, just as there are questions that Quantum Mechanics cannot answer.  If you discovered a unified theory that could explain general reletivity, quantum mechanics, string theory, and all the gaps inbetween, then that would replace relativity as the fundamental theory of the universe.  However, any theory that you came up with would still have to be consistent with the experimental results from general relativity, just like general relativity is consistant with the Newton's Laws that it replaced.
174495
My turn. In about 200 years, when we are all dead and the Yahoo! gods have ceased to exist, another scientific discovery will be made that will render all previous knowledge useless. \nThis discovery will come at a time when Six Flags has closed it's last roller coaster in Greenlands' "Damn it's Cold" park and 6000 people, who can no longer e-commute to work, have to actually turn off their computers and go OUTSIDE into the sunlight. The experience will spark Wide Spread Panic and Dancing in the Streets. \nWho cares? WE WILL BE LONG GONE!!!!
895994
Here's some basic background covering how mathematical models of space and time have evolved since ancient times, from the Pythagorean Rule to Newtonian mechanics, Special Relativity and General Relativity.\nhttp://www.theory.caltech.edu/people/patricia/st101.html\n\nEinstein and Special Relativity give us a mathematical model for spacetime that reflects the observed behavior of Nature in that nothing can go faster than the speed of light. (At least not anything observed in a laboratory or in outer space as of yet.) \n\nIn Einstein's time they were already learning about differential geometry, but Einstein motivated this field of mathematics even more when he came up with an equation relating the curvature tensor of the spacetime distance function to the distribution of matter and energy in spacetime, encoded in a tensor Tuv called the stress-energy tensor. \n This equation is now called the Einstein equation: \nRuv - (1/2) guv R = (8 Pi G/c4) Tuv \n This equation (or actually, set of equations, for there is an equation for every combination of tensor indices u and v) models a lot of phenomena in the Universe that was impossible to describe with mathematics just using Newton's law of gravity. For example, observations of the bending of light by gravity, gravitational radiation emitted by pulsars, new observations of black holes and the observed expansion of the visible Universe can all be modelled rather successfully using this elegant formalism uncovered by Einstein.
5142
Because he wasn't looking at the whole picture in the first place.  He largely discarded the efforts around Quantum Mechanics, which described the environment of the very small.  The big crux was the stark differences between Gravity and Electro Magnetism, which were impossible to bring together under the constraints of general relativity.\n\nHis goal for unification of the Universes forces is still a pursuit of today's physicists.
636455
To be sure, the theory has a lot of gaps.  So it's not a Law.  All's it takes is one scientifically provable discovery that doesn't fit the theory to launch a search for a new theory that will explain the new information while keeping the old proven stuff too.  A good example is Einstein's Theory of Relativity.  Newtonian Mechanics fails at extreme sizes and speeds.  Relativity so far has been able to explain all the variances found to date at those extremes, but has not been proven to be 100% valid all the time, so it's not a law yet.  If you can discover something that invalidates evolutionary theory, you'll probably win a Nobel Prize!
201375
I do not believe there will be any "discoveries" for some time... in Physics, the theory is generally proposed first and then the emperical data is gathered to prove or disprove it, and the theory still has a way to go...
389972
Your speculations are shared by some professional physicists and astronomers. Of course no one can prove anything at this time in our scientific history because we have no way of knowing what's going on inside the event horizon of black holes. Indeed, the laws of physics as we understand them won't even work there, so viable theories can't be developed.\n\nAs for God -- I'm not a religious fundamentalist fanatic by any means, but it seems to me that at the very least there has to be some sort of Prime Entity or First Cause that "invented" the laws of physics that make such things as big bangs, black holes, multiverses, etc., possible, even if this universe is nothing more than an accident.\n\nGod should be spelled B-I-G B-A-N-G\nPBrax@netscape.com
1160647
Neither,\n\nTheory is never proof so that's not it. Gravity is a weak force. M is an explanation why it is weak. Multidimensional theory is not about gravity, it's just part of it.\n\nEinstein tried to unify the fields, he failed. Many new theories came and went.... I'm not sure we 'got it' now. It is still a very unstable work in progress.
272146
Special relativity (SR) or the special theory of relativity is the physical theory published in 1905 by Albert Einstein in his article "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies". It replaced Newtonian notions of space and time and incorporated electromagnetism as represented by Maxwell's equations. The theory is called "special" because it applies the principle of relativity only to the "restricted" or "special" case of inertial reference frames in flat spacetime, where the effects of gravity can be ignored.\n\nSpecial relativity inter-relates space and time in such a way that the speed of light is constant, and the theory leads to situations where two observers can disagree over time intervals and distances between events, but without ever disagreeing about what events actually happened. It shows that time can pass more slowly if an observer is moving, depending on their relative speed.\n\nThe theory also predicts the famous equation E=mc². Special relativity applied to objects travelling close to the speed of light as opposed to the lower speeds covered by Newtonian theory. It is now well established although Newton's methods are commonly used to cover slower objects.
214436
try these links\nthts a really good question but its explainations is quite lengthy. so maybe if u go through all these links, u might get wat u really are looking for\n\nwww.muppetlabs.com/~breadbox/txt/al.html\n\nwww.bartleby.com/173/\n\nwww-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/ ~history/HistTopics/General_relativity.html \n\nen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_relativity\n\nwww2.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Cyberia/NumRel/GenRelativity.html\n\ngood luck and have fun!
442904
Yes it is true. It proved that light doesn't need any medium to travel and thus no such thing called aether exists.
357562
What is this gravity that you mention?  :P\n\nGood point tho, funny how it didn't exist until very recently in our history.  *hugs*
17379
The focus in the 21st century for the forefront of physics is understand the connection between General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. No question about this. The results could be a string theory, or loop gravity, or something completely different.\n\nAlso up there I think is a better understanding of a property we all know and love: mass. There is a search for the Higgs Boson. We need to find it and study it. Or, if it can't be observed try and determine what that means.\n\nOther challengs include being able to use the EPR phenomena of quantum entanglement to produce the first prototypes of an actual encrypted signal over a reasonable distance.\n\nNanotechnology is another challengs, in how to work those little parts into ways that form mini-computers, and also in ways that allow for various medical uses.
150007
At the moment no one knows.\n\nString theories are one attempts to combine Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity, which is what a unified theory is. Thus far no complete theory and no testable predictions have emerged. Perhaps they will in time, or from some of the alternatives like loop gravity.