Chapter 3, Of Warps and Ripples Summary and Analysis

Through special relativity, Einstein proved that nothing can outrun light, which overturned Newton's universal theory of gravity. Isaac Newton was born in 1642, and revolutionized physics by applying mathematics to physical pursuits. Newton discovered that everything exerts a gravitational force on everything else, dependent upon the amount of matter an object has, and how close or far away the two objects are. The closer and more massive an object, the more gravitational force they have; the less massive and father away, the smaller the gravitational force. Newton created a formula for gravity, where "the gravitational force between two bodies is proportional to the square of the distance between them" (p.55). However, much of the theory of special relativity depends on the speed of light and the fact that nothing can surpass it. With Newton's...