General relativity / Elementary Tour part 3: A planet goes astray

The first test of general relativity concerned a situation in which Newton's and Einstein's theories give almost the same result - with a small but crucial difference. The scene: our cosmic backyard, the solar system. The protagonist: Mercury, the planet ...

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General relativity / Elementary Tour part 2: The cosmic dance

In this new picture, there is no gravitational force that masses exert on other masses. Instead, there are spacetime distortions. Spacetime in the presence of a mass is curved. In flat, empty spacetime, small test particles follow straight lines. However, ...

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