UPSC IAS - 2018
Consider the following phenomena: 1) Light is affected by gravity. 2) The Universe is constantly expanding. 3) Matter warps its surrounding space-time. Which of the above is/are the prediction/predictions of Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, often discussed in media?
Year Asked: 2018
Correct Answer
D. 1, 2 and 3
Detailed Explanation
All three statements are predictions that come out of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. Statement 3 is its core idea: mass and energy curve spacetime, and what we feel as gravity is motion along that curvature. Statement 1 follows directly. Light has no mass, but it follows the curved geometry of spacetime, so it bends near massive objects like the Sun. Arthur Eddington's 1919 solar eclipse observations confirmed this. Statement 2 is also a GR result. Alexander Friedmann (1922) and Georges Lemaitre (1927) solved Einstein's field equations and found that a universe filled with matter cannot stay static. Einstein had added a cosmological constant to force a static universe, which he later called his biggest blunder. Hubble's 1929 observations confirmed the expansion.
Core concept: the field equations linking geometry to matter-energy. Mains angle: GPS needs relativistic corrections, and the same theory underpins the detection of gravitational waves by LIGO in 2015.
Trap: candidates drop statement 2 because they file expansion under 'Big Bang and Hubble' rather than as a consequence of the field equations. The prediction came through Friedmann and Lemaitre, not Einstein's own initial calculations.
This question appeared in UPSC Prelims 2018 GS Paper-1.
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