Question

Explain general. Relativaty like im 5

Answer 1

Hey there!

General Relativity is a simple concept to understand. It is just about the perspective of people who sees an event from different places/ perspectives.

Let's start with an example. Let's say a huge open truck with 2 guys Tim and Rocky are playing ball on it. The truck moves at 70 mph. Tim and Rocky throws the ball to each other at 20 mph when they play catch inside the truck. The reality is that ball moves at 20 mph inside the truck for Tim and Rocky

Now imagine Tom standing outside on the road watching this moving truck . Inside the truck he sees Tim and Rocky playing ball. For Tom as he is standing still he would see the ball moving at 90mph speed because he adds the speed of the ball and the truck.

Okay, if we consider Tom, is he really still??.. nope he is not. Because he is moving along with the rotation of the earth. Now is earth still? Nope. It is moving around the sun.

The reality is no object is completely still. Every object is moving relative to an other object.

Let me give you an other example as well. This one is called the length contraction.

Let's say you are in a train station and you see a train called the "Greenfield Express".You measure the length of the train and it has a length of 1500 meters and you see the train standing still.

The next day you come to the train station again. This time you see the Greenfield Express approaching towards the platform you stand and the train is not going to stop. The train is running at 200 mph.

If you observe the fast moving Greenfield Express from the platform you would feel that the length of the train might have decreased to 500m or so even if it has the same length as you measured it yesterday. The contraction in length in your mind just happened because of the high speed of the train. That would give you an illusion that there is a length contraction.

Hope you get the idea by now. Cheers :)