"Einstein asked himself a question... how can the sun and the Earth "attract" each other without touching..? ...[H]e imagined that the sun and the Earth each modified the space and time that surrounded them, just as a body in water displaces the water... This modification of the structure of time influences in turn the movement of the bodies, causing them to "fall" toward one another. ...The Earth is a large mass and slows down time in its vicinity. ...If things fall, it is due to this slowing of time. ...Where time passes uniformly, in interplanetary space, things do not fall. ...[H]ere on ...our planet, the movement of things inclines naturally toward where time passes more slowly, as when we run ...into the sea and the resistance of the water on our legs makes us fall headfirst... [T]ime passes more slowly for your feet than it does for your head."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Carlo Rovelli, The Order of Time (2018) p. 11.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/General_relativity
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
General relativity
30 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by General relativity →
Related Quotes
"Einstein's general theory of relativity... was needed not because of conspicuous failures of Newton's theory... but b…"
"In the early 1960s general relativity experienced a sudden revival in connection with astrophysical discoveries far r…"
"The theoretical developments involving general relativity in the period prior to the renaissance made use of central …"
"If I were giving this lecture fifty years from now, the word "gravitation" would be as old-fashioned as the word "phl…"
"Differential geometry originally sneaked into theoretical physics through Einstein's theory of general relativity."
"Up to the early 1950s, general relativity was a little-frequented subject, amongst physicists—a theory that had to be…"
"There was difficulty reconciling the Newtonian theory of gravitation with its instantaneous propagation of forces wit…"
"General relativity was considered by Einstein as his most important discovery... a new theory of gravitation bringing…"
"The great triumph of the theory of relativity lies in its absorbing the universal force of gravitation into one geome…"
"Although Einstein's general theory of relativity predicts that there can exist... a singularity in our past, it provi…"