- #1
mitch bass
What is being suggeted when it is proposed that space is curved?
Originally posted by mitch bass
What is being suggeted when it is proposed that space is curved?
Originally posted by mitch bass
What is being suggeted when it is proposed that space is curved?
What is being suggeted when it is proposed that space is curved?
Originally posted by kleinma
how could a curved path between 2 objects be shorter than a straight one?
Originally posted by kleinma
how could a curved path between 2 objects be shorter than a straight one?
Originally posted by mitch bass
What is being suggeted when it is proposed that space is curved?
Originally posted by jcsd
Phobos, it's more than a metaphor, the curvature of space in GR works
Originally posted by Arc_Central
I'm inclined to think of gravity like this.
http://home.att.net/~jrabno9/g.jpg
And that there is no curvature of space. I think of gravity as a wound out wave in a spiral fashion. The wave is the particle. Half of the wave (particle) is localized and the other half is not. The part that is not is the gravitational aspect of the wave.
The problem with that is that it does not explain the behavior of light, ie how light can be affected by gravity if it is massless.Originally posted by Arc_Central
I'm inclined to think of gravity like this.
The problem with that is that it does not explain the behavior of light, ie how light can be affected by gravity if it is massless.
Originally posted by jcsd
The curvature of space is the causal explantion of gravity!
When your looking at curved space in GR it is exactly the same as looking at a curved topology which is a lot stronger relationship than the word 'metaphor 'implies'.
Originally posted by subtillioN
It is the explanation of the effect of the causal mechanism. It is not an explanation of the mechanism itself. This is common knowledge that the mechanism of gravitation still is a mystery in the standard model.
Can you tell me exactly HOW mass curves space?
It is simply a map. Nothing more.
Originally posted by mitch bass
What is being suggeted when it is proposed that space is curved?
The fact that gravitational fields produce the exact same results as curved space means it is perfectly correcvt to say mass curves space.
Originally posted by jcsd
Mass curves space via gravity (I know you're not going to be happy with that but GR in terms of explaining the causes of gravity is a great improvemnt oin Newtonian physics).
The fact that gravitational fields produce the exact same results as curved space means it is perfectly correcvt to say mass curves space.
Originally posted by Arc_Central
This depends on your view of space. My personal view is that space can't be curved, because it isn't there. One could expect the same results from a gravitational field or curved space, but one of em has to be wrong. Right?
Originally posted by jcsd
Think of two points on the surface of a globe, you'll notice that the shortest path between the two is a curved one as well (this fact was well known to sailors in days of yore).
Originally posted by Nacho
, it's a very-very lazy coiled loop.
Originally posted by Nacho
Ya have to be careful when you (I, anybody) talk about "curved space". Not anybody around here draws this conclusion, but other people that don't know anything of the concepts.
Because, take the Earth for example. The thinking goes these people put together goes this way:
1) Gravity makes Earth orbit the Sun.
2) Gravitation is really a distortion of space, it curves space.
3) The ole' "rubber sheet analogy" ...
4) So, the Sun distorts space around itself via gravitation.
5) The Earth is just following this path (track) in space around the Sun that the Sun has carved out around itself, like a ball flowing around a dip in a rubber sheet.
Of course that's wrong .. the distortion of space is way too little for the Earth to be following (trying to be careful to pick a correct word) a physical track around the Sun that the Sun carved out of space.
The element of time is not brought into the picture above .. to make the closed loop the Earth appears to follow around the Sun, you have to bring in time, and you find out that the path Earth follows in orbiting the Sun is not a closed loop at all, it's a very-very lazy coiled loop.
Originally posted by marcus
...
Can you estimate the excess angle in an equilateral triangle around the sun where the sides pass, say, a million km from center.
By how many microradians would the sum of the interior angles exceed pi radians or 180 degrees?
As a very rough estimate I get the excess angle is 18 microradians.
... Maybe you can get a better estimate of the excess angle? [/B]
Originally posted by jcsd
You don't need to think about time as gravity warps space as well as space-time.
Originally posted by jcsd
Phobos, it's more than a metaphor, the curvature of space in GR works exactly the same way as if it were curved into a 4th higher dimension of space (some people have a hard time understanding that though space is curved this way it doesn't at all imply that a fourth dimension of space exists, tho').
Originally posted by subtillioN
In Sorce Theory, gravity is a refraction of the internal wave systems of the atom in response to an over-riding density gradient (g-field) in the unified field.
Originally posted by Phobos
Note that mitch bass's question pertains to GR*, so let's keep the discussion within that framework. Discussions about alternate explanations can be linked to other topics.
* presumably, based on the way he phrased the question.
Originally posted by marcus
Phobos, I for one do very much appreciate the effort
taken by PF mentors to keep threads focused and on topic
which is what I think you are trying to do here
Curved space is a concept in physics that describes the shape of space as being curved instead of flat. This means that the distance between two points in space may not be a straight line, but rather a curved path.
In physics, twisting refers to the rotation or angular movement of an object. In the context of curved space, twisting can be seen as the way space itself curves and bends due to the presence of massive objects like planets or stars.
Curved space is a fundamental concept in Einstein's theory of general relativity, which is the current model for understanding the laws of gravity. It helps us to explain how objects with mass interact with space and how gravity works on a larger scale.
Yes, we can observe the effects of curved space in our everyday lives. For example, the orbits of planets around the sun are a result of the curvature of space caused by the sun's massive gravitational pull. Additionally, the bending of light around massive objects like galaxies is also evidence of curved space.
Curved space and time are closely related concepts in physics, but they are not the same. While curved space refers to the shape of the universe, time refers to the progression of events. However, in Einstein's theory of relativity, time can also be affected by the curvature of space, leading to the concept of spacetime.