Across the globe events are being conducted to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity. On this day in 1915 the German-born theoretical physicist presented his paper to the Prussian Academy of Sciences, paving the way for discoveries and explanations about the world and the universe. Einstein’s theory has been regarded as “the most beautiful of all physical theories” by the great Russian physicist Lev Landau.
Einstein’s presentation consisted of an elegant and simple set of equations which described space-time to be a stretchy and flexible fabric, he described gravity as deformations in space-time instead of a force.
The ongoing World War One prevented anyone from proving his theory until four years after Einstein first put forward his theory on November 25th, 1915. Many believe that Einstein’s theory of general relativity forms the core of physics as it has aided us in understanding events like the universe’s expansion and the Big Bang, enabling us to discover the existence of black holes and the movement of planets.
It was a theory well ahead of its time, one that challenged all the norms of the time which were primarily based on the theories that Isaac Newton had developed some 200 years before.
Even to this day physicists are aided by the theory of general relativity put forward by Einstein in a bid to experimentally prove issues that still remain, and some might say that the work has only just begun.