Albert Einsteinfirstpublishedhis theory of particular relativity in 1905 ; his work on general relativity followed in 1915 . By 1923 , Premier Productions made asilent filmto excuse the most salient bit . Though it ’s completely silent ( and , of course of study , 100 yr older ) , it ’s a good crystal clear room to understand Einstein ’s most important work — with some great vintage animation as well .
The theory ofspecial relativityrevolutionized the ways that scientist study and understand the universe of discourse . It introduced the noted equation east = mc2 , which stands for “ vim = mass x the hurrying of illumination squared . ” Fundamentally , particular relativity proposes that mess and vigor are the same matter but in different chassis . Each can be converted to the other form under specific consideration .
The earlyscicommeffort seems pretty janky to us now , but a hundred ago , the Divine were not only trying break down a complicated possibility that underlie space - clip , but also doing so with film , a fairly new engineering back then . The movie ’s cracker-barrel aesthetical vertex at the 1:45 home run when the film maker strap two pistols to a wheel , set it spinning frantically , and fire the pistols at the same time . The filmmaker used spiritedness rather than real slow - motion photography to show the relative speeds of luminance and bullet train in this chip . Again , it was 1923 — no fancy CGI or digital effect .

Another highlight headache therelativity testbeing conducted during the solar eclipse of 1919 , which corroborate a hypothesis that sobriety bear upon light , time , and space , overruling Sir Isaac Newton ’s possibility of gravity . For that reason , the European Space Agency has yell the upshot “ the most significant occultation in thehistoryofscience . ”
you’re able to download this flick from thePrelinger Archivesvia theInternet Archive . If this vestigial physical science lesson forget you with questions , you’re able to watch Einstein explicate histheory of relativityhimself or find out if it precludesinterstellar space travel .
A rendering of this story was print in 2017 ; it has been update for 2023 .