History of Gravitation — Interactive Journey Through Physics
An interactive journey through 2,500 years of gravitational physics. From ancient Greek celestial spheres and Aristotle to Copernicus, Newton, and Einstein, explore the evolution of our understanding of gravity. Discover the mathematics of general relativity, black holes, gravitational waves detected by LIGO, cosmology, and the frontiers of quantum gravity. Each chapter combines historical narrative with interactive physics simulations, accurate equations, and real data.
What You Will Learn
This project covers the full arc of gravitational theory. Starting with Aristotle and Ptolemy, who placed Earth at the center of a universe of crystalline spheres, we follow the Copernican revolution through Kepler and Galileo. Newton unified terrestrial and celestial mechanics with his law of universal gravitation. Einstein then overturned this picture with special and general relativity, showing that gravity is the curvature of spacetime. Modern chapters explore black holes, neutron stars, gravitational wave astronomy with LIGO and Virgo, and the open questions at the frontier of quantum gravity.
Interactive Simulations
Every chapter includes hands-on simulations built with real physics. Adjust orbital parameters and watch Kepler's laws emerge. Modify mass and see spacetime curve. Explore epicycles, gravitational lensing, and binary pulsar dynamics. All simulation source code is open source and available on GitHub.