One of the things that I love the most about mathematics and the sciences are their ability to describe the world around us through elegant equations and ideas. In light of this, I’ve decided to start a series on beautiful equations.

General Relativity

This equation was developed by Einstein as part of his general theory of relativity in 1915. The theory revolutionized the way scientists understood gravity, as it described that what we perceive as the force of gravity in fact arises from the curvature of space and time.

The right-hand side of the equation describes the energy content of our universe, including ‘dark energy’ that causes the current cosmic acceleration, whilst the left-hand side describes the geometry of space-time.

This equation shows how mass and energy determine the geometry, and hence curvature of space-time, which results in gravity. Additionally, it can tell us how the universe has evolved since the…