Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
In general relativity, four-dimensional vectors, or four-vectors, are required. These four dimensions are length, height, width and time. A "point" in this context would be an event, as it has both a location and a time. Similar to vectors, tensors in relativity require four dimensions. One example is the Riemann curvature tensor.
Numerical relativity is the sub-field of general relativity which seeks to solve Einstein's equations through the use of numerical methods. Finite difference , finite element and pseudo-spectral methods are used to approximate the solution to the partial differential equations which arise.
General relativity has emerged as a highly successful model of gravitation and cosmology, which has so far passed many unambiguous observational and experimental tests. However, there are strong indications that the theory is incomplete. [210] The problem of quantum gravity and the question of the reality of spacetime singularities remain open ...
The nonlinearity of the EFE distinguishes general relativity from many other fundamental physical theories. For example, Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism are linear in the electric and magnetic fields , and charge and current distributions (i.e. the sum of two solutions is also a solution); another example is Schrödinger's equation of ...
In general relativity, the metric tensor (in this context often abbreviated to simply the metric) is the fundamental object of study.The metric captures all the geometric and causal structure of spacetime, being used to define notions such as time, distance, volume, curvature, angle, and separation of the future and the past.
Scientists found a math tweak to make tachyons—faster-than-light particles—compatible with general relativity, possibly changing our understanding of physics.
These three experiments justified adopting general relativity over Newton's theory and, incidentally, over a number of alternatives to general relativity that had been proposed. Further tests of general relativity include precision measurements of the Shapiro effect or gravitational time delay for light, measured in 2002 by the Cassini space probe.
The term "three-body problem" is sometimes used in the more general sense to refer to any physical problem involving the interaction of three bodies. A quantum-mechanical analogue of the gravitational three-body problem in classical mechanics is the helium atom , in which a helium nucleus and two electrons interact according to the inverse ...