this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2023
1283 points (97.2% liked)

Science Memes

11253 readers
4234 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.

Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.

Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
1283
What is gravity? (mander.xyz)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
247 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

An analogy I've used with my children.

Sit in the middle of our trampoline. Roll a ball in a straight line beside you. Watch it roll around you and fall into the depression you make in the trampoline surface.

This is a primitive 2 dimensional simulation of gravity.

The ball "thinks" the surface is a flat plane, as far it knows it's rolling in a straight line.

You are the heavy object curving space(time). Your eyes are a higher (3rd) dimensional observer and can see the curvature and it's effect on the ball.

If you roll them ball fast enough, it curves slightly and then escapes your "gravity well". It has changed course slightly. This the gravitational lensing simulation.