Question

In your own words, state and explain the postulate of General Relativity

Answer 1

principle of equivalence: A freely falling object will not experience any force. From this we can conclude that the inertial mass and gravitational mass are one and the same.

space-time curvature: Space-time can be considered as a rubber sheet which will lay flat unless some massive mass exists in its vicinity , upon which there appears a dent in the space time sheet surrounding the mass. i.e. mass has the ability to 'curve' space-time. Any moving object will otherwise move in a straight line undeviated, unless a dent due to a massive object exists in the space-time sheet. This postulate arrives at the conclusion that gravity is infact not a kind of force, but something which depends on the geometry or shape of the space-time sheet.