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The amount of physics and science used in today’s world is unbelievable. They play a major role in almost everything that we are able to do. For example, watching TV, using a computer, the telephone, as well as scientific information (e.g. electricity, medicines, x-ray machines, etc.). The International Space Station is a prime example. Providing livable conditions for humans in space took many years to accomplish and would not be possible without the detection of physics and science through the works and discoveries of great minds years ago. Einstein provided us with many scientific discoveries such as the explanation of gravity and relativity. Both of which are required knowledgeable pieces of information needed in order to help make the ISS possible. This effect is known as causal analysis. While Einstein and others explored the implications of his special theory of relativity, he was already thinking about a more general theory. The special theory had shown how to relate the measurements made in one laboratory to the measurements made in another laboratory moving in a uniform way with respect to the first laboratory. Could he extend the theory to deal with laboratories moving in arbitrary ways, speeding up, slowing down, and changing direction? Einstein saw a possible link between such accelerated motion and the familiar force of gravity. He was impressed by a fact known to Galileo and Newton but not fully appreciated before Einstein puzzled over it. All bodies, however different, if released from the same height will fall with exactly the same constant acceleration (in the absence of air resistance). Like the invariant velocity of light on which Einstein had founded his special theory of relativity, here was an invariance that could be the starting point for a theory. As he often did in his work, Einstein used a "thought experiment." Suppose that a scientist is enclosed in a large box somewhere, and that he releases a stone. The scientist sees the stone fall to the floor of the box with a constant acceleration. He might conclude that his box is in a place where there is a force of gravity pulling downward. But this might not be true. The entire box could be free from gravity, but accelerating upward in empty space on a rocket: the stone could be stationary and the floor rising to meet it. The physicist in the box cannot, Einstein noted, tell the difference between the two cases. Therefore there must be some profound connection between accelerated motion and the force of gravity. It remained to work out this connection. Today the International Space Station will attempt to verify the predictions of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity.
Approximate Word count = 1719
Approximate Pages = 6.9
(250 words per page double spaced)
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