• Question: In general theory of relativity the correct description of gravity and space time in the strong field regime near objects in which orbits approach the speed of light?

    Asked by anon-251260 on 21 Apr 2020.
    • Photo: Ella Mercer

      Ella Mercer answered on 21 Apr 2020:

      Woahhh. I wish I understood this question so I could try and give you an answer! Hopefully somebody else knows a little bit more about physics and space time.

    • Photo: Wei Xun

      Wei Xun answered on 21 Apr 2020:

      Hello Akshata:

      I’m having a bit of trouble understanding what your question is asking, as it reads more like a statement. To help us answer it, could you change the question a little so it’s clearer what you want to know is?

      Thanks!

    • Photo: Varun Ramaswamy

      Varun Ramaswamy answered on 21 Apr 2020: last edited 21 Apr 2020 2:05 pm

      Hi Akshata! I think there is a typo in the first word of your question. Did you mean to type “IS the general theory of relativity the correct description…”?

      If that is your question, then the answer is “not really…”. I must say, I am a biophysicist, so my knowledge of relativity is limited to the videos of lectures and documentaries I watch on the internet.

      But as far as I have heard, strong fields (like the regions around supermassive blackholes) is one of the very few things that general relativity CANNOT explain accurately, because solving the equations there gives you an absurd and inexplicable value of infinity.

      So far, the closest that the accuracy of the theory has come to, is for an object moving around 2.5% the speed of light. So I think that is an astounding level of accuracy and enough for us to be able to rely on it for most of the physics in our world 🙂

Comments