ALBERT EINSTEIN

While working in a patent office, Einstein was researching the behavior of light.  This resulted in the discovery that light is a species of cosmic limit that nothing can surpass.  

If this was true, Newton was mistaken, since he had claimed that if the sun exploded, the planets orbiting it would immediately exit their orbits.  This is because Newton believed that gravity acted instantaneously, regardless of distance. 

Einstein’s solution to this was called the special theory of relativity, which he published in 1905.  Basically, it unifies the three dimensions of space and the dimension of time.  According to the theory of relativity, space is not three-dimensional and time is not a separate entity but rather both are intimately connected.  Einstein called this four-dimensional fabric “space-time.”  According to this theory, the explosion of the sun would create a wave (the same as when you throw a stone into the water) that would travel at light speed until it reached the planets, causing them, at that point, to exit their orbits.   

One of the most important elements of this theory is that time is neither linear nor absolute but relative.  Everything depends on how it is interpreted.  We have all felt the passage of time or a sense of lost time.  If we are diligent enough in the observation of our states of mind, we can see that time varies with our changes in mood and the particular experience we are having at the moment.  

Another interesting aspect of Einstein’s theory is his famous formula E=mc2 in which energy equals mass multiplied by the speed of light squared.  In other words, matter, or mass, is simply a form of energy that has either lost velocity or crystallized.  It is what we and everything else that exists are made of.    

This advance in the theory of gravity was significant, yet it did not provide an exact description of how the force behaves.  Einstein said that if we could understand the way waves collapse or compress perfectly within each other, which is to say without destructive interference, we would then hold the key to gravity.