Relatively complicated? Using models to teach general relativity at different levels

Abstract

This review presents an overview of various kinds of models -- physical, abstract, mathematical, visual -- that can be used to present the concepts and applications of Einstein's general theory of relativity at the level of undergraduate and even high-school teaching. After a general introduction dealing with various kinds of models and their properties, specific areas of general relativity are addressed: the elastic sheet model and other models for the fundamental geometric properties of gravity, models for black holes including the river model, cosmological models for an expanding universe, and models for gravitational waves as well as for interferometric gravitational wave detectors.

97 pages, 46 figures. Based on an invited talk at the session of the section Gravitation and Relativity at the Spring Meeting 2017 of the German Physical Society (DPG) in Bremen, 16 March 2017

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