Question: Can any of you explain the theory of relativity in english that I can understand?

Hi sthatch1,
I will give it a go.

The theory of relativity contains two parts, Special Relativity and General Relativity. Special Relativity is the famous one, the E=mc^2, and General Relativity is about gravity. Both special and general relativity relate to how space and time are not fixed, so by not fixed we mean that space and time is different depending on what you the observer are doing.

How does space and time change?

Special relativity tells us that space and time change depending on our motion. When we are still, that is, we are not moving through space, then we are only moving through time. But as soon as we begin to move through space we move less through time, or think of it another way, as we move faster and faster through space, time goes slower and slower.

Yeah it is a little crazy but think of it in this way.

Lets say you own a special bike that travels at 100km/hr wherever it is going. So you jump on and start going north. This means you are moving towards the north at 100 km for every hour of travel. But lets say you go down a wrong road on this trip that is taking you to the northeast, now you are heading north still, but also east. So you have slowed down the amount of north travel you are doing in exchange for some east travel.

Similarly, relativity tells us that if you have all your motion in the direction of time, then none of your motion can be in the direction of space. When you put some motion into space, it is taken from your motion in time.

If you keep adding more and more motion from your time into your space tank eventually you will be going very fast through space, but not very fast through time, and eventually you will reach a limit the speed of light and time would stop.

General relativity tells us about how gravity changes space and time. So think of a trampoline, with no one on it, it is just flat, and if you roll a ball across it, the ball will continue in a straight line. But if you stand on the trampoline, you bend space, and the ball will not follow a straight line, instead it will curve.

Well the same holds in the cosmos. Gravity which is caused by the mass of objects bends space, and also changes time. Objects like black holes which have huge amounts of gravity, greatly bend space, and time ticks much slower near them

I don’t know if this has helped you, or just made you more confused. I would recommend any of Brian Greenes programs on this topic as pictures are definitely handy when talking about this sort of thing.