The History of Classical Gravitational Theory and General Relativity
The History of Classical Gravitational Theory and General Relativity
In the beginning scientists and religious men of their era tried to explain the universe both biblically and scientifically. One of the foremost Greek scientists was Aristotle; taught by Plato, that the circle and sphere are the two most perfect shapes in a 2 and 3 dimensional universe, Aristotelian system placed Earth at the center of the universe; and all other heavenly bodies revolved around the earth in crystalline orbitals. Another Greek Mathematician, Aristarchus theorized that the sun was the center of the universe and that the Earth revolved around it. His simple reasoning was constituted purely by the fact that the Earth is a much smaller body than the sun, and the smaller should orbit the greater. By the 2nd century CE it became more and more apparent that the simplistic models derived nearly 2000 years before, were flawed. Kepler, a Scientist of the early 1600s concluded not only that the previously stated purely circular orbitals around the sun were in fact ellipses, and that planets travel faster when near the sun, and slower when farther from the sun, and lastly he found that the mathematical relationship between the orbital period, and the orbital radius of any given planet. While Kepler was creating a new model of the universe Galileo Galilei was tearing apart the out dated Aristotelian system. Conceiving the theory of inertia, disproving the concept that all planets orbited the Earth (essentially providing the proof Aristarchus’s theory lacked) disproving the Catholic church’s geocentric model that had become so fundamental to its dogma, and lastly left a major concept of physics unexplained, to an influential scientist, that was born the year Galileo died. Isaac Newton the man that finally unified Earth and the heavens discovered the weakest force in our universe; gravity. Having inherited all the works of physicists previous to his time, Newton
In the beginning scientists and religious men of their era tried to explain the universe both biblically and scientifically. One of the foremost Greek scientists was Aristotle; taught by Plato, that the circle and sphere are the two most perfect shapes in a 2 and 3 dimensional universe, Aristotelian system placed Earth at the center of the universe; and all other heavenly bodies revolved around the earth in crystalline orbitals. Another Greek Mathematician, Aristarchus theorized that the sun was the center of the universe and that the Earth revolved around it. His simple reasoning was constituted purely by the fact that the Earth is a much smaller body than the sun, and the smaller should orbit the greater. By the 2nd century CE it became more and more apparent that the simplistic models derived nearly 2000 years before, were flawed. Kepler, a Scientist of the early 1600s concluded not only that the previously stated purely circular orbitals around the sun were in fact ellipses, and that planets travel faster when near the sun, and slower when farther from the sun, and lastly he found that the mathematical relationship between the orbital period, and the orbital radius of any given planet. While Kepler was creating a new model of the universe Galileo Galilei was tearing apart the out dated Aristotelian system. Conceiving the theory of inertia, disproving the concept that all planets orbited the Earth (essentially providing the proof Aristarchus’s theory lacked) disproving the Catholic church’s geocentric model that had become so fundamental to its dogma, and lastly left a major concept of physics unexplained, to an influential scientist, that was born the year Galileo died. Isaac Newton the man that finally unified Earth and the heavens discovered the weakest force in our universe; gravity. Having inherited all the works of physicists previous to his time, Newton
Cited: Berry, A. J. Henry Cavendish. London: Hutchinson, 1960.