General Relativity

General relativity is a theory of gravitation that was developed by Albert Einstein between 1907 and 1915. Before general relativity Newton’s law of universal gravitation had been the accepted explanation of the gravitational forces between masses. According to general relativity the observed gravitational attraction between masses results from their warping of space and time. Through observations and experiments the general theory of relativity accounts for several effects of gravity that are unexplained by Newton’s laws. General relativity predicts effects of gravity such as gravitational waves, gravitational lensing, and the effect of gravity on time known as gravitational time dilation. Many of these predictions have been confirmed by experimentation while others are the subject of ongoing research. General relativity deals with physics on the large scale. At the very small scales of quantum mechanics the mathematical models of general relativity produce inconsistent results. The mathematical models of string theory reconcile most of the inconsistencies produced when combining general relativity with quantum mechanics.