How has the theory of relativity benefited humans.  Where might we be without it?
454792
Hey gudrun what question are you answering?\n\nOne thing it helps with is GPS accuracy.  Without accounting for effects of relativity, we would have HUGE accuracy problems.
703456
I don't know what exactly is your question! If anti-gravity could be manipulated ever, i think if would be very useful for us, maybe even in interstellar travels.
378094
We do not notice the effects of relativity, since the mass-energy we encounter is too small and the speeds are too small relative to the speed of light. That is of course, unless your everyday life involves particle accelerators! The regime of the effects of special relativity can be measured with regard to gamma, thus:\n\ngamma=1/sqrt(1-(v^2/c^2)), where v = the object velocity and c = spped of light. If v/c (or v^2/c^2) is << 1, the effects wont be noticed, i.e the object is "non-relativistic".
981582
Check Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_relativity
118693
There are plenty of good websites that answer this question, for any knowledge level. The concept is complex enough that you won’t get a meaningful answer here.\n\nIn horribly oversimplified terms Relativity simply  states two things. \n\nOne that there is no universal ‘at rest point’, it all depends on how you choose to define it. You sit in a car doing 100mph and I stand beside the road. Normally we assume that you are in motion and I am at rest. Relativity states that we can just as accurately say that you and the car are at rest and I am moving at 100mph. Alternatively, we normally believe that the Earth orbits the sun and the Moon orbits the Earth. Relativity states that it is just as accurate to say that the Earth orbits the moon and the sun orbits the Earth, or we could say that we all orbit some imaginary point in between all three. It is all a matter of choice what we define as being the fixed point.\n\nThe second is that the speed of light is constant regardless of whether you are at rest or moving, and regardless of how fast you move. If you are sitting in a car doing 9/10 of lightspeed and are going past me standing still beside the road and we both look at exactly the same light beam shining down the road we will both see that light beam travelling away from us at exactly the speed of light relative to both of us. You don’t see it slowed down just because you are travelling almost as fast as it is. It will move away form me just as fast as it moves away form you. \n\nThose are the basics, and they aren’t all that hard to understand, even if they don’t seem to make much sense. What Einstein did was sit down and think really hard about the logical consequences of those two points.
1089963
Of course, it's difficult to say. The understanding of the cosmos is full of extraordinary ideas and insights. I'd tend to mention Copernico, who first stepped on the modern view of the Universe putting the Earth moving around the sun. And then Kepler, who gave the three fundamental laws of planetary movement, based on the extremely accurate and extensive data collected by Tycho Brahe WITHOUT a telescope.  And of course, Einstein. His General Relativity Theory is the cornerstone of the current cosmology.
303178
I have no idea. But in 1915 Einstein and some other people came across a problem with relativity - that it lead to some issues with conservation of energy and they starting thinking that possibly parallel universes could be the answer to correcting this.
176321
According to Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_relativity ):\n"Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, or simply relativity, refers specifically to two theories: special relativity and general relativity. As a field of study, relativity also includes metric theories of gravitation in which special relativity applies locally.\nThe term "relativity" was coined by Max Planck in 1908 to emphasize how special relativity (which at that time was the only relativity theory)\n uses the principle of relativity.\nSpecial relativity\n\nMain article: Special relativity\nEinstein's 1905 paper "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" introduced the special theory of relativity. Special relativity considers that observers in inertial reference frames, which are in uniform motion relative to one another, cannot perform any experiment to determine which one of them is "stationary". This is known as the principle of relativity. While this principle was not new to Einstein's work, he found that including electromagnetism in this principle required a new formalism with many surprising consequences. In particular, it required the speed of light in a vacuum to be the same for all these observers, regardless of their motion or the motion of the source of the light.\nOne of the strengths of special relativity is that it can be derived from only two premises (although Einstein did not derive it this way):\nThe speed of light in a vacuum is constant (specifically, 299,792,458 meters per second).\nThe laws of physics are the same in any inertial frame of reference. This means that the laws of physics observed by a hypothetical observer traveling with a relativistic particle must be the same as those observed by an observer who is stationary in the laboratory.\nThe famous equation E=mc² (the energy contained in the rest mass of an object is equal to the product of its mass and the square of the speed of light) is derived from this theory.\n[edit]\nGeneral relativity\n\nMain article: General relativity\nGeneral relativity was developed by Einstein in the years 1911 - 1915. General relativity is a geometrical theory which postulates that the presence of mass and energy "curves" spacetime, and this curvature affects the path of free particles (and even the path of light). It uses the mathematics of differential geometry and tensors in order to describe gravitation without the use of the force of gravity. This theory considers all observers to be equivalent, not only those moving with uniform speed."
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Well I would use examples and predictions. \n\nFirst I would say, there are TWO theories of relativity: the special theory, and the general theory. \n\nSpecial Theory\n--------------\n\nRather than go into an explanation of the why the speed of light is constant in all inertial frames, I would mention the predictions of the special theory. \n\n1. Nothing can go faster than the speed of light, which is like a speed limit for the universe. I think most children have seen speed limits, so this might seem familiar to them.  \n\n2. If you are in a space ship going very fast, close to the speed of light, time will slow down and you will age more slowly.\n\n3. If you are in a space ship going very fast, close to the speed of light, you will get shorter from front to back. You will become flattened like a pancake.\n\n4. If you are in a space ship going very fast, close to the speed of light, your mass will increase, so that if you were weighed you would be heavier. \n\nGeneral Theory\n---------------\n\nRather than talking about the curvature of space-time, I would again use the predictions of the general theory. \n\n1. When something is very heavy, it has a lot of gravity, and it can even pull on light. In this way, light can be bent. \n\n2. If the object is very heavy, the light is unable to get away at all, so we call the object a black hole. \n\nThis is good enough to start and whet their appetites. If they want more detail, there is a HUGE amount of material out there.
200856
The author Kurt Vonnegut once wrote that (I'm paraphrasing) units of time (moments, seconds, etc.) should be thought of not as connected points along a line, but rather like grains of soil in a mountain.  It's an interesting concept if you think about it.  One could move through time from one unit to another adjacent one without the ability to skip over one. Since each of us only exists in only one of them "at a time", so to speak, collectively we would be occupying all of them simultaneously.  It could explain where we "go to" when we are lost in thought, or how time seems to slow during some activities and speed up during others.  It might also help to understand the concept of multiple simultaneous dimensions. The notion of moving "ahead" through time is relative to your local frame of reference, just as "up" is relative to your local field of gravity and ceases to exist without a center of gravity.
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Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, or simply relativity, refers specifically to two theories: special relativity and general relativity. As a field of study, relativity also includes metric theories of gravitation in which special relativity applies locally.\nThe term "relativity" was coined by Max Planck in 1908 to emphasize how special relativity (which at that time was the only relativity theory) uses the principle of relativity.\nAlbert Einstein's 1905 paper "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" introduced the special theory of relativity. Special relativity considers that observers in inertial reference frames, which are in uniform motion relative to one another, cannot perform any experiment to determine which one of them is "stationary". This is known as the principle of relativity. While this principle was not new to Albert Einstein's work, he found that including electromagnetism in this principle required a new formalism with many surprising consequences. In particular, it required the speed of light in a vacuum to be the same for all these observers, regardless of their motion or the motion of the source of the light.\nOne of the strengths of special relativity is that it can be derived from only two premises:\n·The laws of physics are the same in any inertial frame of reference. This means that the laws of physics observed by a hypothetical observer traveling with a relativistic particle must be the same as those observed by an observer who is stationary in the laboratory. \n·The speed of light in a vacuum is constant (specifically, 299,792,458 meters per second). \nGeneral relativity was developed by Einstein in the years 1911 - 1915. General relativity is a geometrical theory which postulates that the presence of matter "curves" spacetime, and this curvature affects the path of free particles (and even the path of light). It uses the mathematics of differential geometry and tensors in order to describe gravitation without the use of the force of gravity. This theory considers all observers to be equivalent, not only those moving with uniform speed.\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_relativity
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IT WOLD BE GREAT IF WE COULD GET EINSTEIN BACK TO WORK ON IT.EINSTEIN SAID IT WOULD WORK,AND WE HAVE NO OTHER BRAIN CLOSE TO HIS.I BELIEVE IF HE WOULD HAVE LIVED LONGER HE COULD HAVE SOLVED IT.THEN AGAIN IT MAY TAKE ANOTHER COUPLE HUNDRED YEARS,LIKE IT DID BETWEEN NEWTON AND EINSTEIN.MINDS LIKE THEIRS ONLY SHOW UP RARELY.
687103
GPS is affected by General Relativity.  If it did not take into account gravitational time dilation, it would be giving people lots of wrong answers!  This is one area where if all we had was Newtonian mechanics, we would not have succeeded.  Even Special Relativity would not be enough to get the right answers.\n\nThis also confirms that, even if General Relativity is not the final answer, it is close enough to be useful!
527452
SIR elbert einsten because he is the great scietist of history. his theory of relativity is very exellent . when this world lost after some lack year then then this theory help us because in the future scientist go on new world in the space.these all thing posible when einstien theory says\nthat  for example a man  (age=18)who live on earth and one who(age=18) which goes in the universe with the speed of light after 50 years the age of man which who live on earth his age 65 year. and one which goes in the universe with speed of light his age is 35 years. tell me which scientist is genius.
91827
Well, there is no doubt that Einstiens theory of relativity has flaws, it is just the best theory available.  For instance it fails to addequately explain the perihelion advance of the planets or the muon decay of radioactive materials.  There are several alternative theories out there.\n\nThe first thing I'd recommend is doing a little research to ensure it isn't an idea that has already been discussed.  Once you have satisfied yourself I recommend reading some physics journals (they should have a few in your public library) to see how scientific papers are written.\n\nAt that point you should send your ideas to multiple physicists and professors (to ensure no one can steal your ideas) and either ask them to assist you in submitting a paper / sponsor you, or write the paper yourself and submit it.\n\nKeep in mind you will receive a lot of criticism, new ideas are always met that way.  You may in fact be wrong or have overlooked something fundamental... in all likelihood you have.  But regardless, you should be applauded for trying to think outside of the box.  The world is full of followers who take everything at face value, the world is also full of employers who like people who are willing to look in new directions.\n\nI hope you are able to continue with this mindset and handle the criticism you encounter.  If you do it is very likely that someday you will have something very worthwhile to contribute to the world.\n\nGood luck and I look forward to seeing your mark upon the world.\n\nPS. I do understand the theory of relativity, and anyone who thinks it is flawless should do a little more studying themselves.
30437
There are two elements to the "Theory of Relativity".\nThe General theory (I'm trying to keep this simple)\nIs that every motion must only be considered as a\n relative motion. That is, as a motion as it relates to \nsomething else, the viewer for example.\n\nThe Special Theory of Relativity is, I believe, incapable of \nbeing simply explained in anything short of a chapter.
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The Earth would immediately leave it’s orbit in a direction tangential to the current orbital plane at a velocity equal to it’s current orbital velocity, roughly 11 km/s.  The final path will be modified by the gravitaitonal force of the other solar system bodies, but since the Sun’s gravitational attraction is much greater than the others,  the solar system would just fly apart.  \n\nThere’s no delay in gravity force propagation, so the effects will be instantaneous the moment the gravity is “turned off”.\n\nEDIT:  \n\nmrjeffrey 321:  It is correct.  The information of the sun's gravitational field really does travel faster than the speed of light.  I don't have any vested interest in any particular theory, I prefer to look at the facts and the experimental data.  Ask any astronomer who performs astrometric or planetary position calculations using celestial mechanics.  The positions of the planets are always calculated using instantaneous gravity.  The positions are then corrected for aberration, the visual position error caused by the fact that light is speed limited.  So, we really calculate the actual positions of the planets, and then we correct for where we actually see the light coming from these planets, delayed by the speed of light.\n\nIn fact, if you model the solar system by adding in a delay for "gravity propagation" at the speed of light, the orbits of the planets in the solar system begin to slowly deteriorate.  This is most obvious with observations of certain binary double stars, where any delay in gravity would cause the star pairs to fly apart.  According to actual ephemeris measurements, the Earth is being accelerated to point about 20 arc-seconds ahead of where the sun appears in the sky.  This is because gravity is pulling us instantaneously towards the true position of the sun, not the apparent position we see in the sky.\n\nI'm not an expert on relativity, so I'm not going to argue fine points about what general  or special relativity either does or doesn't say or is interpreted to say.  What matters is the actual evidence, and the evidence says that the effects of gravity are instantaneous.\n\nNote that there was a paper published back in 2003 regarding the measurement of the speed of gravity, which resulted in it being very close to the speed of light.  There are several errors in this paper that were pointed out after publication.  The calculations used were shown to be incorrect.\n\nAn interesting question on this subject is black holes.  If we agree that gravity is a particle or wave, and we agree that nothing, no information, can escape a black hole, then how is it that black holes exhibit gravity? If they are truly so massive that they warp the very fabric of space-time, then how is it that gravity waves can escape when light cannot  If we accept the fact that black holes are "information holes" in the sky, how can they reveal themselves through gravity?