Isle of Man Post Celebrates 100 Years of General Relativity

ISLE OF MAN in 2016 issued six first day cover stamps marking the 100 anniversary of Professor Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity and the work of theoretical physicist Professor Stephen Hawking.

Each stamp features a rare iridescent foil printing technique on the words 'Isle' and 'Man' and Her Majesty the Queen's portrait along with warm earthy colours to create a scientific and atmospheric look and feel to the collection. The insightful issue text explains the scientifically accurate diagrams featured on each of the stamps and was prepared by Cambridge university experts and Professor Hawking.

 Stephen Hawking endorsed the stamps, saying: "I am honoured to have both my face and life's work featured alongside Albert Einstein and the commemoration of 100 years since the publication of his theory of general relativity."

The first stamp features Professor Albert Einstein, whose equation E=Mc2 has become perhaps the best known equation in physics. It expresses the equivalence between mass and energy that is predicted by the special theory of relativity.

The second stamp features Professor Stephen Hawking and his equation S=A,/4. This equation expresses the entropy of a black hole in terms of the surface area of its event horizon. The meaning of the entropy of a black hole is that it expresses the number of ways in which a black hole could be formed given that all we can see from the outside is its event horizon.

The third stamp features an illustration of the generation of gravitational waves produced by two colliding black holes. LIG0, or Laser lnterGrometer Gravitational-Maze Observatory recently made the very first direct detection of gravitational waves.

The fourth stamp features an illustration of Hawking Radiation. This is radiation that is produced by black ho1es. Until Hawking's work, it was thought that black holes absorbed absolutely ever thing and that nothing could escape from them. Hawking showed that black holes emit thermal radiation much as a lump of hot metal will glow when heated.

The fifth  stamp features an illustration of two black holes colliding. The trousers diagram shows the event horizons of each of the two black holes being surrounded by a new event horizon when the black holes collide and merge.

The sixth stamp features an illustration of a black ho1e. Spacetime outside the black hole is bent so as to form a bottomless pit into which the matter can fall and never escape. It is rather like an astronomical version of the pitcher plant: a carnivorous plant that insects can fall into and never escape.

Source: Isle of Man Post