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A method to straighten curved space-time
(phys.org)
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this post was submitted on 08 Jan 2024
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Physics
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It's weird to me, that the common method of attempting to describe a four dimensional thing is to immediately reduce the three dimensional thing to two dimensions...
The word "curved" is problematic for the concept of space-time because it invokes one or two dimensional thought. Space-time is a four dimensional model.
The best description of the effect of gravity on space-time on my opinion is actually a joke... Gravity sucks :)
Curvature is well defined for manifolds with any number of dimensions. "Flat" in this context means "zero curvature", not "two dimensional".
Can I get an ELI5, please? I understand all of those words, but not the concepts behind them in this context…
The definition of a right angle depends on the number of dimensions. Perpendicularity and parallelism are different in higher dimensions. Space is hard.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curvature#Space
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifold
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimension
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curvature#Flat_space
There is no such thing as a four dimensional "spacetime". That is a abstract math only concept, nothing to do with reality. Time is not a thing, nor is it a dimension. Reality is not curved or flat. That is abstract geometry that they are talking about, not reality. Only 3 abstract dimensions are required to locate anything in reality. Time is just when you want to examine these three dimensions.