this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2023
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Science Memes

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What is gravity? (mander.xyz)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [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.