Rose-Colored Jupiter : This Image Captures A Close-up View Of A Storm With Bright Cloud Tops In The Northern

Ask Ethan: Is Spacetime Really A Fabric?

“I’d like somebody to finally acknowledge and admit that showing balls on a bed sheet doesn’t cut it as a picture of reality.”

Okay, I admit it: visualizing General Relativity as balls on a bedsheet doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. For one, if this is what gravity is supposed to be, what pulls the balls “down” onto the bedsheet? For another, if space is three dimensional, why are we talking about a 2D “fabric” of space? And for another, why do these lines curve away from the mass, rather than towards it?

It’s true: this visualization of General Relativity is highly flawed. But, believe it or not, all visualizations of General Relativity inherently have similar flaws. The reason is that space itself is not an observable thing! In Einstein’s theory, General Relativity provides the link between the matter and energy in the Universe, which determines the geometric curvature of spacetime, and how the rest of the matter and energy in the Universe moves in response to that. In this Universe, we can only measure matter and energy, not space itself. We can visualize it how we like, but all visualizations are inherently flawed.

Come get the story of how to make as much sense as possible out of the Universe we actually have.

Roses, c. 1890. Abbott Handerson Thayer

Wildflowers in Fog, Mount Rainier by Lazgrapher

𝑷𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒆𝒓 - 𝑳𝒂 𝑪𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒂

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more heartstopper lockscreens here!

I just arrived home from seeing Declan McKenna!! 🇲🇽👍🏼 this kid is amazing, so much better than i thought!! And i had the opportunity to see him so close!!! 😍😍👏🏼👏🏼

Captain Fantastic (2016)

PETER PAN (2003) dir. P. J. Hogan