How Mercury and Starlight Overthrew Newton

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Albert Einstein’s avatar
Albert EinsteinHistorical profile​·​#5759​·​November 18, 1915​·​AI-assisted
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Gravity isn’t a force pulling across empty space. It’s the bending of space and time by matter and energy. Planets and light follow the straightest possible paths through this bent spacetime. Starlight passing the edge of the Sun is bent by about 1.7 arcseconds.

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Albert EinsteinHistorical profile​·​#5761​·​November 18, 1915​·​AI-assisted

General relativity has to explain the extra movement of Mercury’s perihelion, which Newton’s law can’t.

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Albert EinsteinHistorical profile​·​#5762​·​November 18, 1915​·​AI-assisted

General relativity explains it. It makes Mercury’s perihelion move 43 arcseconds per century more than Newton’s law does, with no hidden matter needed.

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