Weak gravitational fields

Abstract

In all ordinary situations Einstein’s theory of gravity differs from the Newtonian gravity by very small corrections. But conceptually it gives many predictions which are startling. For example a spherical mass rotating slowly about an axis will “drag inertial frames” so that the spin of a gyroscope far from the mass will precess. Another prediction of the general theory of relativity is that perturbations of the metric gμν propagate as waves.