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Description
Einstein's great General Theory of Relativity was proposed with almost no experimental confirmation. Indeed, almost up to the time of his death surprisingly few experiments were sensitive enough to... test the theory. This programme looks at modern experimental confirmation of General Relativity.
Einstein's great General Theory of Relativity was proposed with almost no experimental confirmation. Indeed, almost up to the time of his death surprisingly few experiments were sensitive enough to... test the theory. This programme looks at modern experimental confirmation of General Relativity.
| Module code and title: | S354, Understanding space and time |
|---|---|
| Item code: | S354; 12 |
| First transmission date: | 15-08-1979 |
| Published: | 1979 |
| Rights Statement: | |
| Restrictions on use: | |
| Duration: | 00:24:27 |
| + Show more... | |
| Producer: | James Burge |
| Contributors: | Paul Clark; Alan Cooper |
| Publisher: | BBC Open University |
| Keyword(s): | Einstein; Experimental confirmation; General Theory of Relativity; Gravity waves; Light bending; Radiation bending |
| Footage description: | Shots of a gravity wave detector, of the Ariel radio telescope, and of the Greenbank telescopes. Commentary by Paul Clark introduces the programme. Clark, in the Octagon Room, Flamsteed House, describes experimental predictions which were made public when the general theory of relativity was published in 1915. These were gravitational red-shift, the residual perihelion procession of the planet Mercury and the bending of electromagnetic radiation in the gravitational field of the sun. Clark describes the experiment performed by Eddington in 1919 which confirmed that light from a distant star was bent by the gravitational field of the sun. Still shot of the site of Eddington's expedition in Sobral. Alan Cooper describes a more modern and accurate experimental technique which verified the light bending prediction. This technique involves radio observation of quasars. Animated diagrams and shots of the radio telescopes at Greenbank, West Virginia. Alan Cooper, at the Haystack Laboratory near Boston, Mass., points out and describes the equipment which was used to bounce radar signals off Mars. This experiment tested Einstein's prediction that electromagnetic radiation is not only bent but also delayed by a gravitational field. Paul Clark describes the problems involved in confirming, experimentally, Einstein's prediction of existence of gravitational waves. An animated diagram helps to illustrate his points. Paul Clark goes into the laboratory at Glasgow Univrsity to examine the apparatus set up there with which they hope to detect gravity waves. Clark points out the various components of the apparatus and explains their function. Over shots of the Arecibo radio telescope and an animated diagram, Clark explains a possible indirect method of observing the effects of gravitational waves. Paul Clark sums up the programme. |
| Master spool number: | DOU3298 |
| Production number: | FOUS073W |
| Videofinder number: | 2044 |
| Available to public: | no |
