Einstein's Theory of Relativity

I started my the "journey" off with some knowledge of Einstein, and his general theory of relativity and it's quantum applications. Knowing about it already, I was eager to begin researching it and learning more about it. Before I started to research I went over what I knew. I knew that Einstein was a German Physicist, who pioneered the world of science with his discoveries. I was first introduced to the theory of relativity in the 3rd grade. We were to calculate how fast an object was traveling in relation to time(It seems complicated but was just multiplication). I asked my dad for help and he began to explain that the object, and the people inside of it, if traveling the speed of light, would expire time differently than someone outside of the object. To the people within the "ship" time would appear to be standing still. My dad explained it to me like this: A man is on a train traveling through a station. The train is traveling near the speed of light. As the train passes, a man at the terminal sees the rear of the train accelerating faster than the front of the train. To him it appears that the rear is catching up. To the passenger of the train, the man sees the front and back as equal distance, and accelerating at a constant speed. The point is that there is no standard for momentum. Every object moving at speed is moving relative to the objects around it. I learned that this concept was undeniably wrong in the eyes of Nobel Prize winning scientist of the time. It was understandable however. The idea that events can occur simultaneously for one person and occur at different times for another is ridiculous. But to Einstein, it was simple. 

Relativity of Simultaneity

Einstein's version of the train (from wikipedia page: Relativity of Simultaneity) "Einstein's version of the experiment presumed slightly different conditions, where a train moving past the standing observer is struck by two bolts of lightning simultaneously, but at different positions along the axis of train movement (back and front of the train car). In the inertial frame of the standing observer, there are three events which are spatially dislocated, but simultaneous: event of the standing observer facing the moving observer , event of lightning striking the front of the train car, and the event of lightning striking the back of the car.

Since the events are placed along the axis of train movement, their time coordinates become projected to different time coordinates in the moving train's inertial frame. Events which occurred at space coordinates in the direction of train movement (in the stationary frame), happen earlier than events at coordinates opposite to the direction of train movement. In the moving train's inertial frame, this means that lightning will strike the front of the train car before two observers align (face each other)."

While war was waging in France, Einstein was under attack in America. Einstein was forced to prove what seemed impossible to prove. How could Einstein move an object at the speed of light. In order to prove his theory, he set out on an expedition. He gathered an English and an American Scientist and sent them to Africa to get long exposures of an eclipse. In order to prove his theory, Einstein needed to prove that light and gravity were relative. He needed to show that gravity affects light. Having to haul the expensive camera equipment with fragile lenses became a challenge for the scientists. The first expedition was a failure. Poor conditions prevented the scientists from capturing a long exposed image of the eclipse. However the second journey was successful. Einstein proved that light bends around objects.

That was the information that I knew before the research process began. Though it may seem complex and multilayered, it is a simple concept that a third grader can grasp. I started off researching from a newspaper archive called ReadEX. I was interested to find and article about how a 16 year old boy was being praised across the nation for being one of thirteen to understand relativity. I thought about this for a while. I dawned on me that the reason this is such a monumental theory is not the cultural significance of having inaccurate clocks, or seeing movement differently. The importance is that Einstein was able to conceive the idea in his head. To be able to spark such an idea from nothing is remarkable, especially at the time that he did. After realizing this I remembered reading about how Einstein was missing certain parts of his brain, and certain parts were larger. This is not like a Phrenology bust, however parts of the brain are associated with the creation of certain things. Einstein's partial lobe was 15% larger than the average brain, and he was missing parts of his brain, which allowed for neural communication to be more clear. Being able to conjure relativity required the perfect brain to do so. Einstein claimed to be heavily visual with his thought(much like myself) with this, he was able to theorize and simulate events in his head. Back to the 16 year old boy in the Bronx. His ability to understand Einstein must have came f