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 What are the impact of the theory of relativity on society today?
The theory of relativity, created by Albert Einstein in 1915, has had a positive impact on society today through the extensive research of black holes, cosmology, and gravitational lensing. media type="youtube" key="62yHCse9qDY" height="344" width="425"

The theory of relativity, created by Einstein in 1915, is a theory of the behavior of space and time and is also a theory of gravity. Because of this theory, space and time are now viewed as dynamic factors in physics, capable of being changed by the matter within them and in turn changing the way that matter behaves. The theory of gravity explains not only such things as orbits of planets but also the vicinity of black holes too.

 With this thoery that Einstein produced, the study of black holes was greatly effected. Black holes are so dense that no light can escape it. Theses holes are so dense that the force of gravity is no match. There is no known force in the universe that could resist the hole's pull because spacetime is so strongly bent that there are no paths leading out. Any light beam can only move closer to the center of the object. The point in which the light starts to turn into the black hole is referred to as the event horizon. This event horizon is the point of no return. Once the light is passed this point, it will not be able to leave the black hole. The reason this relates to Einstein's theory is because this is a general property of theory of relativity. No matter how strange a given spacetime might be, a local observer will always see light beams moving in all directions at exactly the same speed. (Felder 1) This is the same essence in which the theory of relativity has the special relativity rule which states that nothing can move faster than light



From the time of Newton until the development of general relativity most physicists assumed that the universe was essentially unchanging, or //static.// Of course things change on small scales—people are born and die, moons and planets move around, //etc//—but it was generally believed that the universe as a whole had always looked more or less like it does today. (Felder 1) This changed however, as Einstein's theory was studied more and more. As soon as Einstein came up with his theory of relativity he thought of applying it to the question of cosmology, the study of the large scale structure of the universe. Since the equations of his theory describe the nature of space and time, it was natural for Einstein to test the nature of things on the largest scale possible, that being the universe itself. Eventually those equations concluded that the universe must be either expanding or contracting. The theory shows that even in such a case the space as a whole will contract and the distances between the stars will shrink. The universe could start out expanding, and depending on how fast it was expanding it might continue to do so or it might eventually stop and start contracting. However, the universe could never stay still. (Felder 1)

The third impact was the gravitational lensing that was predicted by Eintein's theory, which states that a gravitational field will bend the path of a ray of light. The bending effect is generally slight. Therefore, there has to be a large mass, such as a black hole, galaxy or cluter of glaxies, in order to produce significant lensing, or image focusing. Gravitational lensing does not only require lensing mass but also a light source behind it. Quasars, one of the most distant objects in the Universe would be a good light source if it happened to be aligned with a galaxy. (Glanz 1) This shows the impact of the theory of space and time with relation to the speed of light.

The impacts of Einstein's theory of relativity is a positive one in today's society. Further research of black holes, cosmology, and gravitational lensing was made possible because of Einstein's threories. In the future, the theory of relativity will continue to be a promising factor in the world of physics. It will make further research possible for newer techonology and will continue to prove concepts in our world and universe.
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Felder, Gary. "General Relativity: Einstein: Physics." __NC State: WWW4 Server__. 27 Jan. 2009 . This site contains a lot of information about the theory of relativity related to black holes and galaxies. It is easy to understand for a high school level student. It uses a lot of information to describe how Einstein's theory helped to further the research of such things as our universe.

"Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity in 2 Minutes." __YouTube__. 27 Jan. 2009 . This video gives a perspective of the theory of relativity. It gives general background information of the theory which should help the reader understand it better before the begin reading the analysis of how it has generated research in today's society.

__RedOrbit – Science, Space, Technology, Health News and Information__. 29 Jan. 2009 . This site is about galaxies and modules of galaxies. It takes images of galaxies for their site.

__GweepNet : The GweepCo Cooperative Network__. 29 Jan. 2009 http://www.gweep.net/~jedi/pmwiki/pub/skins/monobook/black_hole_lores1280. This is a computer generated image of a black hole. If you were able to get this close to a black hole without getting sucked in, this is exactly what it would look like.

"The intangible Universe - Relativity,space,time and gravity - part 1 of 4." __Welcome to The Physical World__. 27 Jan. 2009 . This site provides a lot of information about the theory of relativity, theory of gravity, and the special theory of relativity. It is a college based website so it is hard to understand in some places but overall an upperclassmen high school student should be able to understand the information presented.

"General Relativity - History, Basic Concepts Of The Theory, Consequences Of General Relativity - General relativity, Experimental verification." __Science Encyclopedia__. 27 Jan. 2009 . This site explains the concept of the theory of relativity and gives good examples. It also gives experimental verification which means that it explains how the theory is used in experiments done in society today.