In the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century, a New Sc…
In the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century, a New Scientific Revolution was underway that challenged the traditional model of Newtonian Physics and the understanding of life and the universe that had dominated scientific understanding for centuries. The new developments fundamentally shook the foundation of scientists’ knowledge about the universe. A German-born scientist named developed his Special Theory of Relativity in 1905 which proved that time is relative to the speed of the observer and his General Theory of Relativity ten years later which proved that time is also relative to the gravitational force exerted on the observer. It also proved spacetime is four-dimensional and the curvature of spacetime is directly related to the energy and momentum of whatever is present. In short, time is not constant – it is relative to the speed at which an object is traveling and the gravitational pull exerted upon that object. This fundamentally redefined Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation and changed the nature of physics. Scientific discoveries such as these contributed to the Age of Anxiety, as life, the universe, and everything became increasingly complicated and long-held beliefs were shattered.