Physics is in Everything: is Theory?

"What happens to space if a massive object like the sun is present? Before Einstein the answer was nothing;... Einstein [led] to the remarkable suggestion that the presence of mass, such as the sun, causes the fabric of space around it to warp," [68]

Incredible! This picture illustrates Einstein's Theory of General Relativity. As you can see, the object in orbit to the earth is in fact falling down a curved slope. Another image you can have to understand this is that of a whirlpool in a sink or bath tub. You can see the small bits of soap or shampoo accelerating towards the drain, then once those items are in the whirlpool, they swirl downward into the drain. My first immediate thought was that this implies all objects in orbit are falling toward the earth. Which is frightening to think of at first, but then I realized that there is a simple explanation that fits nicely into this theory. The only thing that causes an object to fall into the earth is something that slows it velocity down. The reason why an object is slowing down might be friction. If there is friction experienced in outer space then, yes, the objects will slow down. Our atmosphere extends way beyond in outer space, as it does so, it decreases in it size and its dispersion increases. So a satellite for example comes into contact with a very small amount of our atmosphere while in orbit. This means that yes, our satellite is therefore falling towards earth, but at a very slow rate; so slow in fact that we don't need to worry about it in our lifetime. Although there are a great deal of unexplained reasons to this theory, it would seem at least intuitively correct to some degree.

The novel thus far has done an excellent job at portraying conceptual ideas to the reader. Through the use of visual diagrams and common analogies, Greene invites the intuition of the reader and captivates the imagination with his ideas. Now going back to my first point, I've labelled Greene's purpose to not only educate the reader, but to shift societies perspective on Theoretical Physics. As of late, he has done an exceptional job in my opinion because he has related his ideas to the same tangible and empirical ideas we use in Science. Once he shows us that the method of Theoretical Physics is the same as the Scientific Method, and yields exact and parallel results to that of Science, he can begin to shift societies perspective through our faith in logical reasoning.