bharatiyedu
January 16th, 2006, 12:23 AM
The concept of realtive space and timedid not originate with Albert Einstein. It had been stated already twice, in different forms, during the nineteenth century by Bernhard Reimann and by Ernst Mach. The speed of light had alredy been calculated by james maxwell and independently measured. The principle of relativity had been clearly stated and applied for many centuries, altough no to optics. Einstein's invaluable contribution, while the rest of the scientific community was pre-occupies with the ather, was to tie these ideas together with the notion that the speed of light was constant for all observers, and to show this resulted in an entirely new way to view the universe.