Session:
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Introductory Courses
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Paper Type:
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Contributed
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Title:
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It's About Time: Teaching Correct Intuition for General Relativity*
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Meeting:
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2018 Winter Meeting: San Diego, CA |
Location:
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N/A |
Date:
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Time:
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5:10PM
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Author:
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Jonathan M. Clark*, University Of Tennessee, Knoxville.
4233100720, jclar121@vols.utk.edu
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Co-Author(s):
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None
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Abstract:
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When teaching relativity, many famous analogies and simplifications are called upon to aid students' intuitions. The phrase "gravity bends space" and the visual of a bowling ball on a trampoline are two such examples. However, mathematical considerations of the theory necessitate a more rigorous explanation. Particularly, time's role in relativity is central to the theory's ability to model our world. We present several key connections to the real world which include: the coordinate transformation in Einstein's original thought experiment, a weak field approximation showing that Newtonian gravity can be completely recovered from perturbing the time component in the metric, and the theorem of geometry that a three-dimensional manifold cannot have Einstein gravity in a vacuum with vanishing cosmological constant. These considerations are simple enough to include in an advanced high-school or undergraduate-level lesson plan.
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Footnotes:
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*Sponsored by Lauren Jeneva Clark
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Presentation:
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Relativity Presentation.pdf
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