CITATION — REFERENCE ENTRY
General Relativity — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Key
- britannica2026gr
- Authors
- Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Issued
- 2026-2-27
- Type
- webpage
- Container
- Encyclopaedia Britannica
Raw CSL JSON
{
"URL": "https://www.britannica.com/science/relativity/General-relativity",
"type": "webpage",
"title": "General Relativity",
"author": [
{
"literal": "Encyclopaedia Britannica"
}
],
"issued": {
"date-parts": [
[
2026,
2,
27
]
]
},
"container-title": "Encyclopaedia Britannica"
}
Claims
-
Newton's theory of gravity requires instantaneous action at a distance, which conflicts with special relativity's requirement that no influence propagate faster than light.
"Newton's theory violates special relativity, for it requires an unspecified 'action at a distance' through which any two objects—such as the Sun and Earth—instantaneously pull each other, no matter how far apart."
-
The equivalence principle holds that on a local scale it is impossible to distinguish physical effects due to gravity from those due to acceleration.
"on a local scale—meaning within a given system, without looking at other systems—it is impossible to distinguish between physical effects due to gravity and those due to acceleration"
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