246 - Tim Maudlin: A Masterclass on General Relativity

Tim Maudlin is Professor of Philosophy at NYU and Founder and Director of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics. This is Tim’s seventh appearance on the show. He last appeared on episode 237 for a masterclass on Albert Einstein’s theory of special relativity, explaining it from the ground up and elucidating some common misconceptions. In this episode Tim returns for a discussion of another of Einstein’s major impacts on physics: his theory of general relativity. More particularly, Tim and Robinson discuss black holes, time, paradoxes of distance, Penrose diagrams, figures like Leonard Susskind and Richard Feynman, the curvature of space, and more. If you’re interested in the foundations of physics, then please check out the JBI, which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. Any donations are immensely helpful at this early stage in the institute’s life.Tim’s Website: www.tim-maudlin.siteThe John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.org00:00:42 An Extended Prelude00:05:08 Naming Names00:10:02 The Difference Between Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity00:13:46 Einstein on General Relativity and Metric00:27:21 More on Coordinates00:40:26 A Novel Coordinate System00:46:25 What Is Special Relativity?00:50:30 The Conflict Between Quantum Theory and Relativity01:02:00 Doing Physics with Geometry01:12:38 Geometry and Special Relativity01:30:20 More on Geometry and Relativity01:36:19 Lorentz Frames01:46:56 Simultaneity02:02:03 John Bell and Special Relativity02:11:00 Paradoxes of Distance02:22:12 A Penrose Diagram02:27:47 Introducing General Relativity02:32:23 The Most Important Experiment About Gravity 02:45:52 Changing the Geometry of Spacetime02:55:28 Curvature of Space03:02:03 Be Careful with Diagrams in Science 03:05:45 The Basic Idea of General Relativity03:10:23 The Equivalence Principle03:19:40 Clocks and Gravity03:28:09 Richard Feynman on General Relativity03:37:00 The Cosmological Constant03:41:56 What Are Black Holes?03:50:45 What Steven Weinberg Got Wrong About General Relativity 04:01:01 Black Holes and the Centrifugal Force Paradox04:06:32 Curved Black Holes and Gödel Spacetime04:19:34 The John Bell InstituteRobinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.comRobinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University.