Trinity Celebrates 100th Anniversary of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity

Posted on: 11 November 2015

The Maths and Physics societies at Trinity recently welcomed Fellow Emeritus, Professor Petros Florides, to give a fascinating talk on the centenary of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, which has been lauded as “probably the greatest discovery ever made.” The lecture was conducted on the 100th anniversary of the amazing work.

In 1905, Einstein published his special theory of relativity on the relationship between space and time, which posits that the laws of physics operate identically in all non-accelerating frames of reference, and that the speed of light in a vacuum is the same for all observers, regardless of the motion of the light source.

However, the search was soon on for a theory which could deal satisfactorily with gravitational phenomena, and in which absolute motion of any kind and the existence of any preferential reference systems would disappear completely.

It was after ten years of hard, intense, and often frustrating work, that Einstein’s efforts were crowned with his brilliant success: a general theory of relativity, published 100 years ago this year.

Sinead Ryan, Professor in Pure & Applied Mathematics at Trinity’s School of Mathematics said: Einstein's general theory of relativity is a triumph of modern physics and a powerful example of the importance and impact that basic research can have."

"Today, general relativity is a key component in GPS systems, without which they would quickly fail. Petros is internationally recognised for his work in the field and his lecture was a fascinating explanation of the theory and the physicist behind it. ”