General Relativity Rubber Sheet

Rubber sheet with a bowling.

General relativity rubber sheet.

Imagine a large rubber mat with a bowling ball sitting on it. In 1919 british expeditions to africa and south america observed a total solar eclipse to see if the position of stars near the sun had changed. That the warping of spacetime to produce gravity is like the deformation of a rubber sheet by a central mass. The bowling ball represents a large mass like a planet or our sun.

An analogy is always incorrect otherwise it would not be an analogy. In general relativity energy and mass have curvature effects on the four dimensions of the universe spacetime. Find out what is relativity and how einstein theories of general and special relativity explain the existence of black holes gravitational waves and dark energy. That s hardly surprising given the complexity of the mathematics involved.

Some there have wondered if it was the rubber sheet geometry as topology was described as apparently that may have perhaps unconsciously given birth to the idea as an analogy. General relativity predicted that light would bend in a gravitational field. Einstein instantly became world famous. But on a rubber sheet that is deformed by a.

Spacetime is depicted as a rubber sheet whilst an object such as a bowling ball often representing a planet or star though it can be any object with mass then deforms this rubber sheet when it is placed on top. The rubber is a two dimensional representation of the fabric of spacetime. A common analogy is placing a heavy object on a stretched out rubber sheet causing the sheet to bend downward. This state of affairs is almost entirely the result of one the most famous analogies in science.

All analogies sacrifice accuracy in order to convey some aspect that is considered significant in this case the notion that gravity is caused by curvature of space time. Who came up with the idea of the rubber sheet analogy in relativity. Kentuckyfc writes general relativity is mathematically challenging and yet widely appreciated by the public. The most common method of describing his theory is called the rubber sheet model.

General relativity is one of the more challenging ideas in science. This curvature gives rise to the gravitational force. Imagine the old bowling ball analogy for general relativity and spacetime.