Table of Contents
What showed that gravity is an effect of curves in space and time?
Whereas Newton thought that gravity was a force, Einstein showed that gravity arises from the shape of space-time. However, the presence of a massive body curves space-time, as if a bowling ball were placed on the rubber sheet to create a cuplike depression.
How does gravity bend time in space?
Gravitational time dilation occurs because objects with a lot of mass create a strong gravitational field. The gravitational field is really a curving of space and time. The stronger the gravity, the more spacetime curves, and the slower time itself proceeds.
Who said that gravity bends space and time?
Einstein’s general theory of relativity can be summed up in just 12 words: “Space-time tells matter how to move; matter tells space-time how to curve”. But this short description from the physicist John Wheeler hides a more complex and profound truth.
What is the difference between gravitons and curvature of spacetime?
So gravitons are simply quantums of the gravitational field, like the Higgs boson is to the Higgs Field. The curvature of spacetime is a consequence of the gravitational field (of which the graviton is a hypothetical quantum, inferred but not confirmed), not the other way around.
What is the difference between general relativity and gravitons?
So general relativity is simply the field theory describing gravity, like Maxwell’s theory of the electromagnetic field or Schwinger’s theory of matter fields. Gravitons are the inferred but unconfirmed quantum of the gravitational field. Curvature is real but is secondary.
What is gravity according to Albert Einstein?
It is here that Einstein connected the dots to suggest that gravity is the warping of space and time. Gravity is the curvature of the universe, caused by massive bodies, which determines the path that objects travel. That curvature is dynamical, moving as those objects move.
Is curvature caused by the force of gravity?
Rather, curvature is caused by the force of gravity. Einstein’s view on general relativity is often misrepresented and it is unfortunate that so much of the physics community incorrectly makes out curvature as central to the theory. In Einstein’s view on gravity is not any more abstract than the other four fundamental forces.