Name: Albert Einstein 1879-1955 Nationality: German Ethnicity: Jewish Most Famous Work: Relativity

Albert Einstein was smart as shit. In his special and general relativity papers, some fairly mind boggling ideas came out of it. Trippy as shit if you ask me, so lets review some:



Seeing the past
Someone posted this on the website earlier, and yes, you do see in the past looking at anything. The information of what you see is carried by light. Light shines onto an object, and it actually reflects it, and carries the information through photons, or light. These 'photons' that are actually light travel at the speed of light (go figure). A light year is not a measurement of time, its a measurement of distance. 1 light year = the distance light will travel during a full year.
Example: Alpha Centauri is 4.2 light years away. When we look through a telescope at Alpha Centauri, we are actually seeing that solar system 4.2 years ago.



Time Travel
Time travel is possible for us right now. It can only go into the future with our current perception of reality though. Einstein said: the closer you get to the speed of light, the slower time works for you.
Example: You go up into space, leaving your twin sibling on earth. Your spaceship travels 99.9% the speed of light to the nearest star. When you get back, although you have only traveled 4 years, your sibling has aged a LOT more. When you get back, 50 or 100 years can pass on earth, depending on your speed, and distance traveled. Your friends and family are dead, and you are a man out of place.



Black Holes
Gravity makes matter attract matter. Gas clumps together and form stars, rock and dust clump together to form planets and the like. In a stars life, it can get SO MUCH MASS (the chandresekhar limit) that the stars gravity is trying to pull it so hard to the center that a collapse occurs. The stars gravity gets so large that all forces holding matter apart break, and the entire star clumps into something the size of a marble, called a black hole. Stephen Hawking has actually proven that black holes are a TRANSPORT to a different spot in the universe, in SOME cases. This example is what happens to anyone that tries to take advantage of this "free ride"
Example: You are an astronaut. Your spaceship goes as close to a black hole as safety allows, and you take a spacewalk. You use your air jets to maneuver nearer to the black hole. The gravity increases so fast every foot you get closer that your feet are being pulled a lot faster than your head. Your feet rip off of your body, and you get torn apart by the difference in gravity, adding to the mass of a black hole.


So thats Einstein. One of my favorite guys.