Author Topic: Is the trampoline analogy for the bending of spacetime inaccurate? (Read 548 times)

Photon11 · **on:** 31/07/2012 23:27:41

I have read and thought that the common trampoline diagram (pictured below) of the bending of spacetime is not very accurate, because spacetime is not two dimensional.

Is this a more accurate representation of the bending of spacetime by mass?

JP · **Reply #1 on:** 31/07/2012 23:32:25

Neither diagram is very accurate. Space-time is 4 dimensional, and those pictures are 2D and 3D, not 4D! I guess the 3D one is one dimension "closer," though that doesn't make it accurate.

Geezer · **Reply #2 on:** 01/08/2012 02:53:53

Quote from: JP on 31/07/2012 23:32:25

Neither diagram is very accurate. Space-time is 4 dimensional, and those pictures are 2D and 3D, not 4D! I guess the 3D one is one dimension "closer," though that doesn't make it accurate.

Not sure I would discount it that much. The Earth orbits the Sun in a plane that is pretty much two dimensional (three including time), so the rubber sheet analogy works fairly well. My brother had to have rubber sheet too, but this might not be the best place to discuss that.

graham.d · **Reply #3 on:** 01/08/2012 11:56:47

You are right JP, but I think it does give a visual illustration of John Wheeler's famous line - 'Matter tells space how to curve. Space tells matter how to move.'

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Author Topic: Is the trampoline analogy for the bending of spacetime inaccurate? (Read 548 times)

Photon11

JP

Geezer

graham.d