![]() ![]() In Newton’s day many people believed that the laws of nature that held sway on Earth were different from the laws that governed the planets and other celestial spheres. This Voltron guy was literally the coolest toy I owned as a child.īut Newton too had a wonderful thought, if less “sexy” by modern standards. Einstein’s theory of relativity would go on to become one of the central pillars of modern physics, and Einstein would go on to become one of the most recognized people in the world. Space and time and gravity were suddenly all united like robotic cats coming together to form that Voltron guy. No gravity = flat spacetime.Ī decade after having this “happiest thought,” Einstein formulated his full General Theory Relativity (about curved spacetime), which contained within it his earlier Special Theory of Relativity (about flat spacetime). Weird as it may sound, this was his brilliant realization, and later experiments confirmed it is correct. Exactly how he made that leap is grist for another post. While pondering a person floating in a box in outer space (don’t ask), Einstein suddenly came to the realization that gravity could be understood as a curvature of spacetime (and vice versa). While sitting at his desk in the Swiss patent office, Einstein had what he would later describe as his “happiest thought.” Einstein had been trying to understand how gravity fit into spacetime, that hybrid of x’s and t’s that he himself had invented only a few years before. He had arguably the most brilliant idea to ever arise from the gelatinous pile of neurons that we call brains. No need to visit some nerdy physics forum you never knew existed to learn the answer. In any case, considering LeBron’s legacy has me thinking about a similar question that you’ll find discussed among the physics phan-boys and phan-girls of the world: Who was the greatest physicist ever-Isaac Newton or Albert Einstein? Personally, I don’t give a damn who has won more rings. Of course this won’t end the debate: Who is greatest to ever play the game-Michael Jordan or LeBron James? Nor should it. King James has gone 6-3 in winning NBA titles, leaving him three shy of Michael Jordan. Every year, we seem to watch the LeBrons fall to the Golden State Durant-Curry-Thompson-Greens in the NBA finals, which feels a bit inevitable given the number of hyphens required to write out the latter team’s name.
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