Albert Einstein edited In_November_1915_just_hundred__.tex  over 8 years ago

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In his "On the General Theory of Relativity" \cite{1915SPAW.......778E}, Albert Einsten discussed the intimate connection between space, time, energy and mass. The picture that emerges is extremely elegant.   %geometric theory in which the force of gravity emerges naturally as the stretching and bending of space-time caused by the presence of %mass and/or energy.   The pinnacle of the theory is equation~\ref{einstein}, actually a set of 10 equations called {\bf Einstein's Field Equations}.   These equations describe gravitation as a result of space-time being curved by matter and energy. Space and time can be measured using the so-called metric tensor (a tensor is a mathematical object analogous to but more general than a vector), which enters through the quantity $G_{\mu\nu}$. The metric tensor is, so-to-speak, a complex ruler with a clock attached. The equation states that the result of making a measurement using the metric tensor doesn't only depend on space-time itself, as expected in Newtonian mechanics. Instead, mass and energy enter the picture via the quantity $T_{\mu\nu}$, called stress-energy tensor. The stress-energy tensor measures the density and flux of energy and momentum (the product of mass and velocity of an object).