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.site

The John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.org

00:00:42 An Extended Prelude

00:05:08 Naming Names

00:10:02 The Difference Between Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity

00:13:46 Einstein on General Relativity and Metric

00:27:21 More on Coordinates

00:40:26 A Novel Coordinate System

00:46:25 What Is Special Relativity?

00:50:30 The Conflict Between Quantum Theory and Relativity

01:02:00 Doing Physics with Geometry

01:12:38 Geometry and Special Relativity

01:30:20 More on Geometry and Relativity

01:36:19 Lorentz Frames

01:46:56 Simultaneity

02:02:03 John Bell and Special Relativity

02:11:00 Paradoxes of Distance

02:22:12 A Penrose Diagram

02:27:47 Introducing General Relativity

02:32:23 The Most Important Experiment About Gravity

02:45:52 Changing the Geometry of Spacetime

02:55:28 Curvature of Space

03:02:03 Be Careful with Diagrams in Science

03:05:45 The Basic Idea of General Relativity

03:10:23 The Equivalence Principle

03:19:40 Clocks and Gravity

03:28:09 Richard Feynman on General Relativity

03:37:00 The Cosmological Constant

03:41:56 What Are Black Holes?

03:50:45 What Steven Weinberg Got Wrong About General Relativity

04:01:01 Black Holes and the Centrifugal Force Paradox

04:06:32 Curved Black Holes and Gödel Spacetime

04:19:34 The John Bell Institute

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University.