How does mass affect the fabric of space-time?

Large objects such as the Sun and planets aren’t the only masses that warp the fabric of space-time. Anything with mass—including your body—bends this four-dimensional cosmic grid. The warp, in turn, creates the effect of gravity, redirecting the path of objects that travel into it.

Can you stretch space-time?

Spacetime can be stretched as much as you want. Indeed, at the singularity in a black hole the stretching becomes infinite, though I’d guess most of us think some quantum effects become important near the singularity and prevent it actually becoming infinite.

How does mass distort space-time?

Since matter carries energy (via Einstein’s famous relation that energy is mass times the speed of light squared), such objects will have a gravitational field and so they will distort space-time.

Does spacetime have elasticity?

statement: the spacetime’s fabric is elastic. If we reduce the spacetime fabric to only one temporal dimension and only one spatial dimension (1, 1) then we have a surface which could be stress in the time dimension, implying a spatial compression.

Does spacetime have mass?

The “fabric of space-time” has an energy density and also a pressure, but not something that would be called a mass.

Why are mass curves spacetime?

When a smaller mass passes near a larger mass, it curves toward the larger mass because spacetime itself is curved toward the larger mass. The smaller mass is not “attracted” to the larger mass by any force. The smaller mass simply follows the structure of curved spacetime near the larger mass.

Can we manipulate space-time?

Fortunately, modern theoretical physics offers us a solution: manipulate space-time to move ourselves to other remote places in the cosmos without formally violating the universal speed limit.

What is space-time fabric made of?

There is no “fabric” to it. Spacetime isn’t “made of” any material or substance, i.e. it is an immaterial, insubstantial thing.

How does space-time fabric work?

Space-time can be thought of as a ‘fabric’ in which the objects of the Universe are embedded. Those objects – stars, planets, black holes – make space-time curve in upon itself, just as an elastic fabric holding a ball would do. The more massive the object, the deeper the curve – the same as in a fabric!

Is space just a fabric?

The idea that mass-and-energy curves space can be right, even though this naive visualization must be wrong. The idea that space is a fabric has its limitations. It is quite clear that a large mass cannot pull this fabric ‘down’ and cause the other objects within it to move along a curved path.

Why is the fabric of space curved?

It appears to depict the fabric of space as being curved by the presence of mass, and therefore, any other particle traveling along this fabric will have its path bent towards this gravitational source. The larger the mass and the closer you get to it, the larger the curvature, and therefore, the larger the bending.

What is the difference between action-at-a-distance and spacetime curvature?

Action-at-a-distance was here to stay, but Newton’s “infinite-range force through static space” was replaced by spacetime curvature. more severely curved space — run at a different rate than ones in a shallower, less-curved portion of space.

What is the relationship between space and matter?

Matter tells space how to curve, and curved space tells matter how to move. That’s the basic principle behind Einstein’s General Relativity, which linked, for the first time, the phenomenon of gravity with that of spacetime and relativity.