I think it centered on the incredible speeds...light speed? But it such a while back that I saw the show that I can't remember the details. Seems like Tom Selleck narrated it.
I found this simple explanation of Einstein's Special theory here ... http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/review/dr-ma ... ravel.html
The universe is filled with the most wonderful stuff and that is just what I can imagine with my simple human mind. In reading these early papers my zeal for the journey is being renewed in a big way. Even if it takes me a couple zillion years to make it to Paradise I plan on enjoying every minute of it and the new things to learn do and see!The great 20th century scientist Albert Einstein developed a theory called Special Relativity. The ideas of Special Relativity are very hard to imagine because they aren't about what we experience in everyday life, but scientists have confirmed them. This theory says that space and time are really aspects of the same thing—space-time. There's a speed limit of 300,000 kilometers per second (or 186,000 miles per second) for anything that travels through space-time, and light always travels the speed limit through empty space.
Special Relativity also says that a surprising thing happens when you move through space-time, especially when your speed relative to other objects is close to the speed of light. Time goes slower for you than for the people you left behind. You won't notice this effect until you return to those stationary people.
Say you were 15 years old when you left Earth in a spacecraft traveling at about 99.5% of the speed of light (which is much faster than we can achieve now), and celebrated only five birthdays during your space voyage. When you get home at the age of 20, you would find that all your classmates were 65 years old, retired, and enjoying their grandchildren! Because time passed more slowly for you, you will have experienced only five years of life, while your classmates will have experienced a full 50 years.
So, if your journey began in 2003, it would have taken you only 5 years to travel to the year 2053, whereas it would have taken all of your friends 50 years. In a sense, this means you have been time traveling. This is a way of going to the future at a rate faster than 1 hour per hour.
Time travel of a sort also occurs for objects in gravitational fields. Einstein had another remarkable theory called General Relativity, which predicts that time passes more slowly for objects in gravitational fields (like here on Earth) than for objects far from such fields. So there are all kinds of space and time distortions near black holes, where the gravity can be very intense.
Today I am reading Paper 17 The Seven Superuniverses. It is rather long so I do not think I will get it completed today...but who knows.
love,
Sandy