RUNNING HEAD: ELEVATOR AND GRAVITY

The Elevator, The Rocket, and Gravity: The Equivalence Principle

Literary Article Assignment by:
Amy Nguyen
And
Sidney Boakye
09/06/2016

RUNNING HEAD: ELEVATOR, ROCKET, GRAVITY

Abstract
Many of Albert Einsteins Theories are said to have revolutionized science. However, out
of the many, the Equivalence Principle, was one that had served as a framework for the special
theory of relativity, and had been the one Principle that was able to clear up the incompatibility
of Newtons Law of Gravity in Einsteins principle of relativity.

In this principle, one has to imagine that they are in an elevator, and that they are completely cut
off from the rest of the world outside, with no knowledge of what is going on outside of this
elevator. If one were to pick up an object and suddenly drop it, the question would become Was
it due to gravity? or Was it due to acceleration? These two questions would later lead to the
conclusion that gravity and acceleration are one in the same.

RUNNING HEAD: ELEVATOR, ROCKET, GRAVITY

Materials
The main material used, as well as the only material used, was the brain of Albert
Einstein's. He calculated the possibilities as this was a theoretical experiment.
Methods
The first step is to picture ones self in a closed elevator with no knowledge of
what is going on in the outside world. Then, imagine that one will drop an object to the ground
of the elevator. The last step is to question whether it is the object that is falling down to the
ground due to a gravitational pull? Or is it because the ground is accelerating towards the object?

RUNNING HEAD: ELEVATOR, ROCKET, GRAVITY

Analysis
Einstein uses a diverse amount of examples to explain his Equivalent Principle. This is
done is such a way that someone at an average high school level of education would be able to
understand. This article first explain the problems that existed, in which Einstein thought it had
been strange that acceleration had almost the same numbers as the gravitational pull that Isaac
Newton discovered so very long ago. This led to his speculation and further investigation of why
these two numbers are so similar. He began to theorize that force that governs gravity as well as
the force that constitutes acceleration can not be told apart from each other. An example
Einstein used is that if a person was falling in an isolated elevator (no objects around, no air
friction, just gravitational pull) then the person inside the elevator would feel weightless. The
person and the elevator are falling at the same rate so the person would not be able to sense if he
was falling. Finally Einstein explains that gravitational fields are not perfectly homogenous. This
causes things which fall towards the core of the Earth to, very slowly, shift position.

RUNNING HEAD: ELEVATOR, ROCKET, GRAVITY

References
The elevator, the rocket, and gravity: The equivalence principle. Retrieved from
http://www.einstein-online.info/spotlights/equivalence_principle

Anderson, P. (2014). Equivalence Principle. Retrieved from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eU2hGIrBULA