Simulation theory solves many things.
The older I get the more I feel like a NPC.

I’ve been an amateur astronomer for most of my life, but until I watched several science videos on the subject, I, too, referred to gravity as being a force. If you need visual representation of gravity, search YouTube on the subject, and it will make more sense.

As others have said, it is caused by the curvature of space/time. I’m sure everyone has seen visual depictions of space as a plane with stars and planets causing a dip in the plane relative to their mass. The more mass of an object, the more of a dip. That dip is a representation of gravity. The earth’s dip is deep, but compared to a super massive black hole, it is a dimple in comparison.

Basically, objects don’t actually pull on each other, but their effect on space/time causes the effect we know as gravity. Objects move linearly through space unless acted upon. A parent on a bed causes their small child to roll toward them in therir dip in the mattress, not due to gravity, but because the lager parent’s dip in the mattress is deeper than the smaller child’s. THAT is a representation of how gravity works.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
"There is no gravity, the Earth sucks." Random sign in the Freshman Dorm 1986

I’m going with this one.

Yep, my physics teacher had a shirt that said "Gravity is a fallacy life just sucks."

Newton has you all fooled,

I asked my buddy... he's wicked smart. Stand by.

home cooked food restaurants

Gravity is a pull, messing with it could create a time paradox, the results of which could cause a chain reaction that would unravel the very fabric of the space time continuum, and destroy the entire universe!

I'm not sure time even exists... it is just a man made idea to make some sense to ourselves of our existence.

I don't see how an idea like time could be bent either.

But then as they say, we don't know what we don't know.

I despise man made unprovable theories stated as fact by experts that just make shit up to justify their theories.

Steven Hawkins once said nothing existed before the Big Bang... if that is true then what blowed up?
He later said in an interview near the end of his life that I saw that he now thought there could have been an infinite number of big bangs, with the solar system repeatedly collapsing and re "big banging" over and over.

He also said in the same interview that he thought it was possible that God was created in the Big Bang but he did not believe heaven was...

Yea... Going to do some yard work... you'uns carry on.

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I don't see how an idea like time could be bent either.

Time is a dimension. Dimensions aren't bent, they are overcome.

quote:

Originally posted by cparktd:

I'm not sure time even exists

Of course time exists. If it didn't, everything would happen at once.

I don't pretend to understand any of this particularly well, but I think it is gravity that is currently the biggest problem in creating a "theory of everything." Theoretical physics can integrate the other forces and particles into one theory - or at least to some extent - but as I understand none of those theories account for gravity very well, if at all.

Skydiver with over 700 jumps. Every single time I’ve stepped out of an airplane in flight (over 700 times) I’ve gone down. Never up. Whatever it is it’s constant under 15,000 feet AGL.

All this gravity talk makes me want to see Interstellar again.

What really bends my brain is this:

We usually visualize the curvature of spacetime as a result of mass with a 2-dimensional plane with a mass curving it in to a third dimension.

This implies that in "reality", mass that curves 4-dimensional spacetime actually curves it in to a 5th dimension.

quote:

Originally posted by JohnCourage:
All this gravity talk makes me want to see Interstellar again.

Or for that matter Gravity.

quote:

Originally posted by bobtheelf:
What really bends my brain is this:

We usually visualize the curvature of spacetime as a result of mass with a 2-dimensional plane with a mass curving it in to a third dimension.

This implies that in "reality", mass that curves 4-dimensional spacetime actually curves it in to a 5th dimension.

That 2 dimensional plane is just a visual representation.

Another thing taking a long time to apprehend was that empty space, which is just common sense, isn’t empty. It is something which I’ve referred to as space/time. All this is confirmed- one way is how GPS satellites are dealt with. Time is different closer to a massive object, so that is taken into account with the satellites.

Why is gravity so cheap?

Because it's mass-produced.

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:
A relativist like Einstein would explain it as a warping of the space-time continuum by objects of mass.

I've never understood the idea that that's an explanation of gravity. How does gravity warp space-time if it doesn't have power (the force) to do that?

Leaving it at "It's a warp of space-time" is just describing the result of the force, as if we described a gunshot as a hole in a target.

Saying that gravity isn't a force might be disputed by some of those people who have managed to tip a large gun safe onto themselves.

Yes, I'm sure many people are convinced that "It's a warp" is fully sufficient as a description, but not for an ignoramus like me.

Gravity is a force of attraction between bodies which have mass. The force is directly proportional to the mass of the objects and inversely proportional to the distance between them.

In Einstein's world, space time continuum is likened to the surface of a bed where objects are placed on it. Objects with bigger mass pushes down on the mattress more and causes objects with lesser mass to draw near to them.

quote:

Originally posted by ftttu:

quote:

Originally posted by bobtheelf:
What really bends my brain is this:

We usually visualize the curvature of spacetime as a result of mass with a 2-dimensional plane with a mass curving it in to a third dimension.

This implies that in "reality", mass that curves 4-dimensional spacetime actually curves it in to a 5th dimension.

That 2 dimensional plane is just a visual representation.

Another thing taking a long time to apprehend was that empty space, which is just common sense, isn’t empty. It is something which I’ve referred to as space/time. All this is confirmed- one way is how GPS satellites are dealt with. Time is different closer to a massive object, so that is taken into account with the satellites.

While I agree that mass affects time such as the even horizon of a black hole where time stops, I believe the time rate difference in satellites and planes is caused more by speed rather than mass.

As an object's speed increases, time slows down and as the same object's speed increases, it's mass increases as well.