Relativity Quotes - Page 7

• It is ironic that Einsteins most creative work, the general theory of relativity, should boil down to conceptualizing space as a medium when his original premise [in special relativity] was that no such medium existed[..].

  Robert B. Laughlin

  Space, Creative, Ironic

  Robert B. Laughlin (2008). “A Different Universe: Reinventing Physics From the Bottom Down”, p.99, Basic Books

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• I always found it satisfying that gravity was described by Einstein's geometric theory of general relativity.

  Antony Garrett Lisi

  Gravity, Found, Theory

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• The Theory of Relativity confers an absolute meaning on a magnitude which in classical theory has only a relative significance: the velocity of light. The velocity of light is to the Theory of Relativity as the elementary quantum of action is to the Quantum Theory: it is its absolute core.

  Max Planck

  Science, Light, Velocity

  Max Planck (2014). “Scientific Autobiography: and Other Papers”, p.25, Open Road Media

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• Now Einstein was a very clever man, with us all his philosophies he shared, He gave us the theory of relativity, which is E equals M C squared.

  Richard Digance

  Clever, Philosophy, Philosophical

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• Every great artist raises art to a science, and every great scientist raises science to an art, hence we have Michelangelo's David and Einstein's Theory of Relativity.

  Robert Breault

  Art, Greatness, Scientist

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• To show the relativity of what's good taste and what's not is something I like to play with.

  Jean Paul Gaultier

  Play, Taste, Shows

  "Jean Paul Gaultier's rich history as a costume designer deserves praise" by Simon Jablonski, www.theguardian.com. May 8, 2012.

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• In Einstein's general relativity the structure of space can change but not its topology. Topology is the property of something that doesn't change when you bend it or stretch it as long as you don't break anything.

  Edward Witten

  Change, Space, Long

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• Evidence in support of general relativity came quickly. Astronomers had long known that Mercury’s orbital motion around the sun deviated slightly from what Newton’s mathematics predicted. In 1915, Einstein used his new equations to recalculate Mercury’s trajectory and was able to explain the discrepancy, a realization he later described to his colleague Adrian Fokker as so thrilling that for some hours it gave him heart palpitations.

  Brian Greene

  Heart, Long, Support

  Brian Greene (2011). “The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos”, p.16, Vintage

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• It took Einstein ten years of groping through the fog to get the theory of special relativity, and he was a bright guy.

  James C. Collins

  Perseverance, Fog, Years

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• Tell me it's never been done. Because the only real laws in this world-the only things we really know-are the two postulates of relativity, the three laws of Newton, the four laws of thermodynamics, and Maxwell's equation-no, scratch that, the only things we really know are Maxwell's equations, the three laws of Newton, the two postulates of relativity, and the periodic table. That's all we know that's true. All the rest are man's laws

  Dean Kamen

  Real, Men, Law

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• The rigid electron is in my view a monster in relation to Maxwell's equations, whose innermost harmony is the principle of relativity... the rigid electron is no working hypothesis, but a working hindrance. Approaching Maxwell's equations with the concept of the rigid electron seems to me the same thing as going to a concert with your ears stopped up with cotton wool. We must admire the courage and the power of the school of the rigid electron which leaps across the widest mathematical hurdles with fabulous hypotheses, with the hope to land safely over there on experimental-physical ground.

  Hermann Minkowski

  School, Science, Views

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• Relativity propped it up, at least gave it the illusion of being there…the way all reality becomes illusory and observer-oriented when you study general relativity. Or Buddhism. Or get drafted.

  Joe Haldeman

  Buddhism, Reality, Way

  Joe Haldeman (2014). “The Forever War”, p.38, Open Road Media

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• What makes the theory of relativity so acceptable to physicists in spite of its going against the principle of simplicity is its great mathematical beauty. This is a quality which cannot be defined, any more than beauty in art can be defined, but which people who study mathematics usually have no difficulty in appreciating.

  Paul Dirac

  Art, People, Appreciate

  Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac (1995). “Sammlung”, p.908, Cambridge University Press

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• Einstein has a feeling for the central order of things. He can detect it in the simplicity of natural laws. We may take it that he felt this simplicity very strongly and directly during his discovery of the theory of relativity. Admittedly, this is a far cry from the contents of religion. I don't believe Einstein is tied to any religious tradition, and I rather think the idea of a personal God is entirely foreign to him.

  Wolfgang Pauli

  Religious, Believe, Thinking

  "Physics and Beyond". Book by Wolfgang Pauli, 1971.

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• The modern physicist is a quantum theorist on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and a student of gravitational relativity on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. On Sunday, he is praying... that someone will find the reconciliation between the two views.

  Norbert Wiener

  Friday, Monday, Sunday

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• The total number of people who understand relativistic time, even after eighty years since the advent of special relativity, is still much smaller than the number of people who believe in horoscopes.

  Yuval Ne'eman

  Believe, Science, Years

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• Einstein, my upset stomach hates your theory [of General Relativity]—it almost hates you yourself! How am I to' provide for my students? What am I to answer to the philosophers?!!

  Paul Ehrenfest

  Hate, Upset Stomach, Answers

  Letter to Albert Einstein, November 24, 1919.

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• Relativity teaches us the connection between the different descriptions of one and the same reality.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Life, Science

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• Relativity was a highly technical new theory that gave new meanings to familiar concepts and even to the nature of the theory itself. The general public looked upon relativity as indicative of the seemingly incomprehensible modern era, educated scientists despaired of ever understanding what Einstein had done, and political ideologues used the new theory to exploit public fears and anxieties-all of which opened a rift between science and the broader culture that continues to expand today.

  David C. Cassidy

  Science, Anxiety, Political

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• It is almost impossible to have a baseless snobbish opinion of the General Theory of Relativity.

  Michael Moorcock

  Opinion, Impossible, Theory

  "Fantastic Metropolis", Christmas Editorial, December 9, 2001.

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• String theory?[pause] It closed the conceptual gulp between relativity and quantum mechanics. It postulates that subatomic particles are not points, but strings, about one planck length long. The rate at which strings vibrate can generate the properties of all known particles. Huh? How did I know that?

  Willie Garson

  Long, Mechanic, Length

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• By an application of the theory of relativity to the taste of readers, today in Germany I am called a German man of science, and in England I am represented as a Swiss Jew. If I come to be represented as a bête noire, the descriptions will be reversed, and I shall become a Swiss Jew for the Germans and a German man of science for the English!

  Albert Einstein

  Science, Men, Germany

  "Einstein On His Theory". The Times (London), November 28, 1919.

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• No matter how hard you try to teach your cat general relativity, you're going to fail.

  Brian Greene

  Cat, Trying, Matter

  NOVA interview, www.pbs.org. October 28, 2003.

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• You teach me baseball and I'll teach you relativity...No we must not. You will learn about relativity faster than I learn baseball.

  Albert Einstein

  Sports, Baseball, Faster

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• I have tried to read philosophers of all ages and have found many illuminating ideas but no steady progress toward deeper knowledge and understanding. Science, however, gives me the feeling of steady progress: I am convinced that theoretical physics is actual philosophy. It has revolutionized fundamental concepts, e.g., about space and time (relativity), about causality (quantum theory), and about substance and matter (atomistics), and it has taught us new methods of thinking (complementarity) which are applicable far beyond physics.

  Max Born

  Philosophy, Knowledge, Science

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