Rubber Sheet Analogy For Warping Of Spacetime

A rubber sheet warped by a heavy stone left is an excellent analogy for a black hole s warped space right.

Rubber sheet analogy for warping of spacetime.

That s interesting and certainly a. The similarity is that something is warping which changes the path. Figure 24 8 three dimensional analogy for spacetime. This in fact is an excellent analogy.

Spacetime is like a rubber sheet that is flexible. This curvature gives rise to the gravitational force. Spacetime can be thought as a thin rubber sheet. This state of affairs is almost entirely the result of one the most famous analogies in science.

It s often misused to show that mass warps spacetime 895. In general relativity energy and mass have curvature effects on the four dimensions of the universe spacetime. When a massive object creates a big depression in the sheet the ant which must walk where the sheet takes it finds its path changed warped dramatically. Figure pageindex 2 three dimensional analogy for spacetime.

Now physicists have tested this idea theoretically and experimentally and say it doesn t hold water. The mechanisms behind rolling down a dent and the geodesics of spacetime are different. That pit is caused by the central mass is gravity. Since spacetime warping can be a difficult concept to understand and visualise an analogy is often used in physics education.

When a massive object creates a big depression in the sheet the ant which must walk where the sheet takes it finds its path changed warped dramatically. This comic refers to a common analogy used to explain how mass distorts space time a bowling ball resting on a sheet of rubber distorts the sheet due to its weight. The way masses warp the rubber sheet and affect other smaller masses can help students develop an intuitive understanding of how gravity works under gr. If you put a mass i e the earth on the sheet the sheet will stretch out and create a pit into which other objects moons etc will fall in and orbit around.

So the bottom line is that the rubber sheet analogy with spacetime is fundamentally flawed it simply cannot reproduce the motion that general relativity predicts. With a rubber sheet the reason things roll into the bottom of the dent is well gravity. What is the geometry of that slice. On a flat rubber sheet a trained ant has no trouble walking in a straight line.

Consider an equatorial slice through the black hole. On a flat rubber sheet a trained ant has no trouble walking in a straight line. It also implies that the warp is into a different dimension which is not necessary. The most common analogy for understanding gravity goes like this.