Elevator Thought Experiment | Genius

I'd like to continue our work together. So why don't you come to Prague with me, Jakob? Maybe I could get you a position at the University.

We'd have time to work on accelerated motion.

Albert, I am flattered. But I've received another offer.

A [inaudible]?

No, assistant to Philipp Lenard.

Well, Lenard's a genius. Of course, you must accept.

Yes, but he's got a bit of a reputation, quite a taskmaster, apparently. Honestly, I get a pit in my stomach just thinking about it.

I know how you feel. In Salzburg, I was so nervous before my lecture, I thought my heart was going to stop right in the elevator.

Actually, I imagined something very strange. So the elevator was falling, and I was just floating inside it.

It was terrifying at first, but then, suddenly, it was as if I had no weight at all. Because a falling man does not feel his own weight.

Me, the floor, my papers were all falling at the same rate. So I couldn't feel the pressure of the floor on my feet.

But what if the elevator was rising? I'd be accelerating in the opposite direction.

It would produce the opposite effect.

You'd feel the floor.

I'd be glued to it, as I am now.

That's gravity.

Exactly. I should've seen it before. This is so simple, so beautiful.

Acceleration and gravity are the same thing. This is the idea I've been missing to complete relativity.

This may just be one of the happiest thoughts of my life.