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General relativity is a theory of gravitation formulated by Albert Einstein in 1915. It describes gravity not as a force between masses, but as a curvature of spacetime caused by the presence of mass and energy. Massive objects warp the fabric of spacetime around them, and this warping dictates how other objects move. Imagine a bowling ball placed on a stretched rubber sheet; the ball creates a dip, and a marble rolled nearby will curve towards the ball, not because of a direct pull, but because it is following the curvature of the sheet.

This theory revolutionized our understanding of gravity, superseding Newton's law of universal gravitation, which described gravity as an instantaneous force acting at a distance. General relativity explains phenomena that Newtonian gravity could not, such as the anomalous precession of Mercury's orbit and the bending of starlight by the Sun. It also predicted new phenomena, like gravitational waves – ripples in spacetime caused by accelerating massive objects – which were directly detected in 2015.

The mathematical framework of general relativity is complex, involving tensor calculus and differential geometry. Its predictions have been extensively tested and confirmed, making it a cornerstone of modern physics. It is crucial for understanding phenomena on cosmic scales, including the behavior of black holes, the expansion of the universe, and the evolution of galaxies. While incredibly successful, general relativity is known to be incompatible with quantum mechanics at very small scales, a challenge that continues to drive research in theoretical physics, aiming for a unified theory of quantum gravity.