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: tim-maudlin.site

The John Bell Institute: 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: robinsonerhardt.com

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