The Relativity Mystique

everyone loves a bit of special and general theories of relativity. the lay person doesn’t fully understand it, its complexity is part of of its attractiveness and charm. we are taught fragments of it in junior physics, if we don’t pursue it beyond first year we are reliant on popular scientific communicators explaining it to us. the theories of relativity appear to defy logic and reason, and present possibilities to us that belong to the realm of fantasy — time travel, time dilation, black holes and so on. yet, relativity is grounded in solid physics and mathematics and has had plenty of experimental evidence to confirm many of its implications. modern satellites take into account the effects of gravity, velocity and time. the implications of relativity inform modern life.

“Max Born termed it “the greatest feat of human thinking about nature, the most amazing combination of philosophical penetration, physical intuition and mathematical skill.” — Updike in The New Yorker.

this combination of philosophical and physical intuition with mathematics skill and pure strangeness is what makes relativity so compelling to the lay public; its unknowability or partial knowability, like being initiated into a space-time riddle; a partial understanding of the great mystery that surrounds us. only a little revelation, but not enough to make the universe comprehensible: relativity becomes a secular, scientific replacement for the mystique of a creationist deity.