Special & General Relativity Questions and Answers Does anyone
really understand general relativity well enough to have an
intuitive grasp of the universe? It is all a mater of
perspective. Physicists and astronomers who spend all of their
professional lives amass an enormous amount of intuition about
the mathematics of relativity, and through constant contact with
the technical details develop, perhaps, the best intuition that
is humanly possible. Those who see relativity and cosmology as a
recreation, and who never grapel with any of the mathematical
details, probably never acheive an intuitive grasp of
relativity. Like learning an instrument, there is a wide gulf
between the kind of experiences many of us have had in grade
school just learning how to sound the notes, and the kind of
proficiency enjoyed by professional musicians who practice 4-8
hours EVERY DAY. To the extent that general relativity is
showing us the right way to think about the physical universe,
yes, there are in fact many people who have