The theory of relativity is not the first led Einstein and Galileo

The theory of relativity was first stated by Galileo in his "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems" in 1632.

To understand the theory of relativity, the first thing you need to understand the theory that it is replaced. This is the theory of the "absolute rest", postulated by Aristotle in the IV century BC. e. According to the version of Aristotle, peace is the natural state of a body, and, left to itself, the body is sure to return to a natural state.

The theory of relativity states that all bodies are in motion relative to each other and that the definition of the body as located "at rest" are pure convention. This implies that the speed of a body can not be expressed as an absolute - only as "relative" to something else.

Italian astronomer and philosopher Galileo Galilei was also one of the founders of modern physics. He is best known as the man who supported the Copernican theory (or Aristarchus) that the Earth revolves around the sun.

The Catholic Church considered heretical hypothesis and has subjected the scientist Inquisition. However, Galileo did not rotted in the rat-infested dungeon for their principles. The term of imprisonment he served in the luxurious home of the Archbishop of Siena, then Galileo was allowed to return under a comfortable house arrest at his villa near Florence. Only in 1992, the Church has officially recognized that no matter how mistaken about Galileo and the scientist looks at the structure of the solar system was still valid.

Albert Einstein understood that Galileo made a mistake in his theory of relativity - rather, that the theory of "falling apart" in exceptional circumstances.

The work of Einstein "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies", published in 1905, it was the first time the "special theory of relativity," which described the unusual properties of particles moving in a vacuum at a speed close to the speed of light.

"The general theory of relativity", superimposed on the principles of the special theory of large-scale phenomena such as gravitational force, was published ten years later - in 1915.

S. Fry, «The Book of General Ignorance»

via factroom.ru