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Questions tagged [spacetime]

Within relativity (both special and general), changes of reference frames can change both the notions of space and of time, with one depending on the other as well. As a consequence, it is necessary to treat both concepts in a unified manner. Hence the term spacetime.

16 votes
4 answers
2k views

Spinors, Spacetime and Clifford algebra

I'm looking to understand the intrinsic connection that Clifford algebra allows one to make between spin space and spacetime. For a while now I've trying to wrap my head around how the Clifford ...
5 votes
3 answers
238 views

How did Einstein figure out mass (and hence energy) bends spacetime?

I can understand that once I fix the velocity of light at $c$, there is a relative variation in space-time based on special relativity (inertial frame of reference). It's not clear to me how Einstein ...
2 votes
3 answers
463 views

Question on special relativity

I am trying to learn special relativity. If we consider two inertial reference frames with spacetime co-ordinates $(t,x,y,z)$ and $(t',x',y',z')$ and let there be 2 observers who measure the speed of ...
2 votes
1 answer
97 views

Looking for papers that claim that spacetime is emergent

This article states: It’s really striking that for most of the plausible theories of quantum gravity that we have, in some sense their message is, yeah, general relativistic spacetime isn’t in there ...
8 votes
5 answers
1k views

Do you always experience the gravitational influence of other mass as you see them in your frame?

You see a galaxy far away. That galaxy is attracting you with a certain amount of gravity. I'm wondering if the gravity influence of the galaxy on you, as measured by you, always ends up being what ...
0 votes
0 answers
37 views

Diameter of a sphere in the regime of general relativity

Lets start naive: empty space, define the origin somewhere, start putting mirrors in a distance of $r$ in many directions so that they roughly sample the surface of a ball of radius $r$. Someone ...
2 votes
2 answers
838 views

Lorentz invariance of the Klein-Gordon equation action

What I will say is not exclusively true for the KG equation, but let's take it as a simple example. When proving the invariance of its action under a Lorentz transformation, it suffices to show that ...
7 votes
5 answers
1k views

How does brain perceive time dilation due to gravity?

Einstein's General Relativity says gravity warps spacetime. Consider a hypothetical scenario: A person travels into space from Earth. He landed on a different planet in some far off galaxy where time ...
-1 votes
1 answer
52 views

Question on spatiotemporal dimensionality about the contradictions of time being a dimension

We can axiomatically see that all spatial dimensions have a fundamental rule where they can either move back or forwards infinitely. However, the temporal dimension started when the universe began and ...
2 votes
0 answers
60 views

Under what circumstances can a 4D singularity occur in General Relativity?

I've tried to find on the literature about 4D (single point) singularities, but most of the theorems about singularities pertain to either space-like or time-like singularities, which always have some ...
-1 votes
1 answer
71 views

What happens if we differentiate spacetime with respect to time? [closed]

Essentially, what would differentiating space-time with respect to time provide us with? What are the constraints associated with such operations? Is it possible to obtain a useful physical quantity ...
1 vote
0 answers
50 views

Does gravity accelerate you towards the geodesic of light between you and the mass?

If there's a planet far away, you will accelerate straight towards it due to gravity. If you place a Schwarzschild black hole right in the middle between you and the planet (the distance between the ...
1 vote
2 answers
133 views

Is the FRW metric, based on spatial homogeneity and isotropy, rotationally and translationally invariant? If so, how?

The spatial part of the Minkowski metric, written in the Cartesian coordinates, $$d\vec{ x}^2=dx^2+dy^2+dz^2,$$ is invariant under spatial translations: $\vec{x}\to \vec{x}+\vec{a}$, where $\vec{a}$ ...
-14 votes
1 answer
120 views

Do satellites in orbit create Relativity paradoxes? [closed]

Can someone point out the flaw in this very realistic scenario below? I will start by stating established first principles of the applicable orbital and relativistic conditions. Then I will describe ...
9 votes
4 answers
657 views

Understanding expansion of the Universe as things flying apart

Say that we have a Universe uniformly filled just with matter (let's not bring dark energy into this). And say that we fill it with very light particles (so that the gravitational interaction between ...

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