Theory of relativity: the history of the greatest concept of the twentieth century

The theory of relativity, the formulas of which were presented to the scientific community by A. Einstein at the beginning of the last century, has a long and fascinating history. In this way, scientists were able to overcome a lot of contradictions, solve many scientific problems, create new scientific branches. At the same time, the theory of relativity is not some kind of final product, it develops and is improved along with the development of science itself.

Many scientists consider the first step, which eventually led to the famous formulations of Einstein, the emergence of the notorious theory of Copernicus. Subsequently, relying on the conclusions of the Polish scientist, Galileo formulated his famous principle, without which the theory of relativity simply would not have taken place. In accordance with it, the system of reference, in relation to which the given object moved, was of paramount importance for determining the space-time characteristics of the object.

The most important stage that the theory of relativity passed in its development is associated with the name of I. Newton. He is known to be the "father" of classical mechanics, but it was to this scientist that the idea was that physical laws are not at all uniform for different frames of reference. At the same time, Newton in his research proceeded from the assumption that time for all objects and phenomena is one and the lengths of things do not change, no matter what system they are placed in. He was the first to introduce into the scientific revolution the concepts of absolute space and absolute time.

The theory of relativity, probably, could not have appeared, were it not for the study of the properties of the electromagnetic field, among which a special place is occupied by the works of D. Maxwell and H. Lorentz. It was here that the environment was first identified, the space-time characteristics of which differed from those that formed the basis of Newton's classical mechanics. In particular, it was Lorentz who derived the hypothesis of contraction of bodies relative to the ether, that is, the space that forms the basis of the electromagnetic field.

Einstein came out strongly against any ideas about the mythical ether. In his opinion, there is no absolute movement, and all frames of reference are equal to each other. From this position it follows that, on the one hand, the physical laws do not depend on which of the two interconnected systems these changes occur, on the other hand, that the only constant is the speed with which a ray of light travels in a vacuum. These conclusions made it possible not only to show the limitations of Newton's laws, but also to resolve all the main problems that H. Lorenz posed in his works on electromagnetism.

In the future, the theory of relativity has developed not only in terms of the interaction of space-time characteristics, but also as an important element in the study of such properties of matter as mass and energy.

The basic postulates of A. Einstein had a serious impact not only on physics and other natural sciences, but also on many other fields of knowledge. Thus, in the first half of the twentieth century, the theory of linguistic relativity, connected with the names of E. Sapir and B. Whorf, became extremely popular. In accordance with this concept, the perception of the world by man is greatly influenced by the language environment in which he lives.