Interstellar Science: 'That's Relativity'

Have you seen Christopher Nolan's Interstellar yet? It's generating a lot of discussion both about the story and the science, and as one of the characters explains in the movie ("that's relativity"), the science focuses around Einstein's theory of relativity. So as the author of a new book about that theory -- What is Relativity? (Columbia University Press, 2014) -- I thought I should weigh in on the movie. First and foremost: I really liked it. The story isn't perfect; for example, while I loved the father-daughter themes, I felt kind of bad for the son, who wasn't always portrayed in a very flattering way. And I'm not quite sure why Matt Damon's character was in the film -- for me, that sequence distracted from the main story line. That said, the movie made me think -- and not many movies do that these days, especially ones that concern topics that I've been studying for many years. So go see it... Second, as a parent, I'm always looking for guidance on what movies are appropriate for children, so here's my advice: I'd take kids from about fifth grade on up. There's nothing particularly wrong with taking younger kids. Indeed, this movie is remarkable for Hollywood in that it contains no sex, no real violence beyond a fist fight and a couple explosive accidents, and I can't even recall a bad word appearing in the dialogue. But the story line is pretty sophisticated, so kids younger than about fifth grade will have trouble following it, which may leave them bored in a mov...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - Category: Science Source Type: news