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History of general relativity - Quiz
Contributed by: Lindsay
  • 1. According to Kip Thorne, what timeframe defines the 'golden age of black hole research'?
A) 1955 to 1970
B) 1950 to 1965
C) 1960 to 1975
D) 1970 to 1985
  • 2. Which field moved into the mainstream of theoretical physics during the golden age?
A) Thermodynamics
B) General relativity
C) Quantum mechanics
D) Classical electromagnetism
  • 3. Which scientific concept was introduced during the golden age of black hole research?
A) Gravitational singularities
B) Atomic fission
C) Plate tectonics
D) Quantum entanglement
  • 4. What theory became well established alongside general relativity during the golden age?
A) String theory
B) Steady State theory
C) Inflationary model
D) Big Bang
  • 5. Who wrote the book 'Cracking the Einstein Code'?
A) Kip Thorne
B) Fulvio Melia
C) Roy Kerr
D) Andrzej Trautman
  • 6. Who hosted a relativity conference in Warsaw in 1962?
A) Fulvio Melia
B) Roy Kerr
C) Andrzej Trautman
D) Kip Thorne
  • 7. Which experiment is mentioned as occurring shortly before the golden age of relativity?
A) Michelson–Morley experiment
B) Cavendish experiment
C) Pound–Rebka experiment
D) Double-slit experiment
  • 8. Who contributed an Afterword to the book 'Cracking the Einstein Code'?
A) Albert Einstein
B) Kip Thorne
C) Andrzej Trautman
D) Roy Kerr
  • 9. Before the golden age, how was general relativity primarily regarded?
A) As a branch of chemistry
B) As a failed hypothesis
C) As a curiosity
D) As a mainstream theory
  • 10. In what city was the 1962 relativity conference hosted?
A) Paris
B) London
C) Warsaw
D) Berlin
  • 11. What is the name of the solution for a spherically symmetric charged object?
A) Reissner–Nordström
B) Kerr–Newman
C) Kerr
D) Schwarzschild
  • 12. Who published a proof in 1957 that black holes are called for by the Schwarzschild solution?
A) Roy Kerr
B) Martin Kruskal
C) Arthur Stanley Eddington
D) Albert Einstein
  • 13. What was the first piece of evidence in support of general relativity?
A) Black hole imaging
B) Gravitational waves
C) Precession of Mercury's orbit
D) Deflection of light by the Sun
  • 14. In what year did Eddington conduct his expedition to confirm the deflection of light?
A) 1919
B) 2015
C) 1915
D) 1957
  • 15. When was the first observation of gravitational waves made?
A) 2019
B) 2015
C) 1957
D) 1919
  • 16. What was the subject of the first image of a black hole, published in 2019?
A) A binary pulsar
B) Messier 87
C) The Sun
D) Mercury
  • 17. Which theory is also known as scalar–tensor theory?
A) Brans–Dicke
B) String theory
C) Rosen's bimetric theory
D) Loop quantum gravity
  • 18. What phenomenon led to the refutation of Rosen's bimetric theory?
A) Binary pulsars
B) Solar eclipses
C) Quantum mechanics
D) Global positioning system
  • 19. What is the theoretical framework that attempts to unite general relativity and quantum mechanics?
A) Quantum gravity
B) The Schwarzschild solution
C) Scalar–tensor theory
D) Bimetric theory
  • 20. Which property defines the Kerr–Newman solution?
A) Rotating and charged
B) Spherically symmetric and rotating
C) Spherically symmetric and neutral
D) Non-rotating and charged
  • 21. How does Brans–Dicke theory compare to general relativity when ω = ∞?
A) Brans–Dicke is more accurate
B) They are the same
C) General relativity is more accurate
D) They are incompatible
  • 22. What do gravitational waves represent?
A) Ripples in the curvature of spacetime
B) Changes in quantum gravity
C) Particles emitted by binary pulsars
D) Energy released by the GPS system
  • 23. Which event provided data that ruled out many alternatives to general relativity?
A) The death of Einstein
B) The 1919 solar eclipse
C) Neutron-star merger GW170817
D) The discovery of the Reissner–Nordström solution
  • 24. Why does general relativity face challenges regarding its consistency?
A) It does not predict gravitational waves
B) It fails to explain the precession of Mercury
C) It is inconsistent with quantum mechanics
D) It contradicts the GPS system
  • 25. Who lent his prestige to champion Einstein's work in Britain?
A) Alexander Friedmann
B) Karl Schwarzschild
C) Edwin Hubble
D) Sir Arthur Eddington
  • 26. Who famously asked Eddington if he was one of the three people who understood general relativity?
A) Georges Lemaître
B) Albert Einstein
C) Ludwik Silberstein
D) Edwin Hubble
  • 27. Who discovered the first exact solution for a spherically symmetric spacetime?
A) Sir Arthur Eddington
B) Karl Schwarzschild
C) Georges Lemaître
D) Alexander Friedmann
  • 28. In what year did Karl Schwarzschild publish his exact solution?
A) 1922
B) 1929
C) 1916
D) 1915
  • 29. Who found a solution in 1922 showing the universe could expand or contract?
A) Edwin Hubble
B) Karl Schwarzschild
C) Alexander Friedmann
D) Sir Arthur Eddington
  • 30. What did Einstein add to his field equations to maintain a static universe?
A) The cosmological constant
B) A spherical coordinate system
C) A perturbation variable
D) Non-linear tensors
  • 31. Who provided evidence for the expansion of the universe in 1929?
A) Karl Schwarzschild
B) Alexander Friedmann
C) Georges Lemaître
D) Edwin Hubble
  • 32. How did Einstein describe the inclusion of the cosmological constant later in his career?
A) An unnecessary approximation
B) A brilliant masterstroke
C) The pinnacle of scientific thinking
D) The biggest blunder
  • 33. How was the cosmological constant described at the time of its addition?
A) A common variable
B) An ad hoc hypothesis
C) A fundamental requirement
D) A proven necessity
  • 34. What kind of spacetime geometry does the Schwarzschild solution describe?
A) An unstable, expanding universe
B) A static, linear universe
C) Spherically symmetric
D) A non-massive, flat space
  • 35. What celestial body's precession did Einstein's early field equations correctly predict?
A) Mercury
B) Mars
C) Jupiter
D) Venus
  • 36. On what date did Einstein present his updated field equations to the Prussian Academy of Sciences?
A) 25 October 1915
B) 15 November 1915
C) 25 November 1915
D) 1 January 1916
  • 37. What does the symbol R represent in the final Einstein field equations?
A) Riemann curvature
B) Ricci tensor
C) Ricci scalar
D) Radius of the universe
  • 38. What does the symbol g represent in the final Einstein field equations?
A) Gradient vector
B) Geodesic path
C) Metric tensor
D) Gravitational constant
  • 39. Who was the German mathematician that Einstein corresponded with during his work on general relativity?
A) Gustav Mie
B) David Hilbert
C) Werner Heisenberg
D) Max Planck
  • 40. Whose ideas formed the basis of the unified field theory that Hilbert was working on?
A) Gustav Mie
B) Bernhard Riemann
C) Isaac Newton
D) James Clerk Maxwell
  • 41. What method did Hilbert use to derive the theory of general relativity?
A) Euclidean postulates
B) Empirical observation only
C) Inductive reasoning
D) A variational principle
  • 42. Which mathematician introduced Einstein to Riemannian geometry in 1912?
A) Marcel Grossmann
B) Tullio Levi-Civita
C) Hendrik Lorentz
D) Paul Ehrenfest
  • 43. Which mathematician recommended that Einstein explore the use of general covariance?
A) Max Born
B) Marcel Grossmann
C) Willem de Sitter
D) Tullio Levi-Civita
  • 44. Which Dutch physicist helped Einstein's work reach the UK and US during World War I?
A) Max Born
B) Arthur Stanley Eddington
C) Hendrik Lorentz
D) Marcel Grossmann
  • 45. Where was the solar spectroscopic analysis that failed to show gravitational redshift in 1917 published?
A) Lick Observatory
B) Leiden University
C) Mount Wilson Observatory
D) ETH Zurich
  • 46. Which physicist described general relativity as the 'greatest feat of human thinking about nature'?
A) Albert Einstein
B) Max Born
C) Tullio Levi-Civita
D) Paul Dirac
  • 47. What was the name of the movement started by German physicists who resented Einstein's fame?
A) General Covariance Movement
B) Modern Physics Union
C) Deutsche Physik
D) Riemannian Physics
  • 48. What argument did Einstein use in 1913 to abandon the approach of general covariance?
A) The redshift paradox
B) The hole argument
C) The curvature inconsistency
D) The solar eclipse contradiction
  • 49. How long did Einstein travel to the Netherlands regularly to lecture as an Extraordinary Professor?
A) Fifteen years
B) Five years
C) Ten years
D) Three years
  • 50. What role did Einstein accept at ETH Zurich in 1912?
A) Lecturer
B) Research assistant
C) Dean
D) Professorship
  • 51. Which physicist called general relativity 'probably the greatest scientific discovery ever made'?
A) Max Born
B) Willem de Sitter
C) Paul Dirac
D) Arthur Stanley Eddington
  • 52. Who developed the theory of general relativity?
A) Henri Poincaré
B) Erwin Finlay-Freundlich
C) Albert Einstein
D) Isaac Newton
  • 53. Over what time period did Einstein develop general relativity?
A) 1900-1910
B) 1910-1920
C) 1905-1912
D) 1907-1915
  • 54. Who proposed the first relativistic theory of gravity in 1905?
A) Charles D. Perrine
B) Albert Einstein
C) Erwin Finlay-Freundlich
D) Henri Poincaré
  • 55. What did Einstein call his realization in 1907 that the principle of relativity could be extended to gravitational fields?
A) The Big Bang theory
B) The equivalence principle
C) The rotating disk experiment
D) His happiest thought
  • 56. In Einstein's 1911 thought experiment, what was indistinguishable from an unchanging gravitational field?
A) A stationary light source
B) A uniformly accelerated box
C) A freefalling observer
D) A rotating turntable
  • 57. What German astronomer publicized Einstein's challenge regarding light deflection?
A) W. W. Campbell
B) Erwin Finlay-Freundlich
C) Charles D. Perrine
D) Henri Poincaré
  • 58. Who was the first astronomer to make a dedicated attempt to observe light deflection to test Einstein's prediction?
A) Charles D. Perrine
B) Erwin Finlay-Freundlich
C) Arthur Eddington
D) Albert Einstein
  • 59. What stopped the observations of the 1912 eclipse in Brazil?
A) Technical error in calculation
B) Heavy rain
C) Outbreak of World War I
D) Equipment failure
  • 60. Which geometry did Einstein study to formulate general relativity as a theory of curved spacetime?
A) Newtonian geometry
B) Euclidean geometry
C) Riemannian geometry
D) Special relativistic geometry
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