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.
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Does someone falling into a black hole see the end of the universe?
This question was prompted by Can matter really fall through an event horizon?. Notoriously, if you calculate the Schwarzschild coordinate time for anything, matter or light, to reach the event ...
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Why would spacetime curvature cause gravity?
It is fine to say that for an object flying past a massive object, the spacetime is curved by the massive object, and so the object flying past follows the curved path of the geodesic, so it "appears" ...
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Does the Planck scale imply that spacetime is discrete?
On a quantum scale the smallest unit is the Planck scale, which is a discrete measure.
There several question that come to mind:
Does that mean that particles can only live in a discrete grid-like ...
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If you view the Earth from far enough away can you observe its past?
From my understanding of light, you are always looking into the past based on how much time it takes the light to reach you from what you are observing.
For example when you see a star burn out, if ...
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What is known about the topological structure of spacetime?
General relativity says that spacetime is a Lorentzian 4-manifold $M$ whose metric satisfies Einstein's field equations. I have two questions:
What topological restrictions do Einstein's equations ...
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Why are some people are claiming that the Big Bang never happened?
A news story is going viral on social media networks claiming that two physicists have found a way to eliminate the Big Bang singularity, or in layman's terms (as claimed by many sensationalist news ...
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What do spacelike, timelike and lightlike spacetime interval really mean?
Suppose we have two events $(x_1,y_1,z_1,t_1)$ and $(x_2,y_2,z_2,t_2)$. Then we can define
$$\Delta s^2 = -(c\Delta t)^2 + \Delta x^2 + \Delta y^2 + \Delta z^2,$$
which is called the spacetime ...
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What is a manifold? [closed]
For complete dummies when it comes to space-time, what is a manifold and how can space-time be modelled using these concepts?
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Why do scientists think that all the laws of physics that apply in our galaxy apply in other galaxies?
I like watching different videos about space. I keep seeing all these videos saying scientists found so and so at 200 billion light years away or this happened 13 billion years ago.
My question is ...
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Is the Planck length the smallest length that exists in the universe or is it the smallest length that can be observed?
I have heard both that Planck length is the smallest length that there is in the universe (whatever this means) and that it is the smallest thing that can be observed because if we wanted to observe ...
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Turbulent spacetime from Einstein equation?
It is well known that the fluid equations (Euler equation, Navier-Stokes, ...), being non-linear, may have highly turbulent solutions. Of course, these solutions are non-analytical. The laminar flow ...
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How exactly does curved space-time describe the force of gravity?
I understand that people explain (in layman's terms at least) that the presence of mass "warps" space-time geometry, and this causes gravity. I have also of course heard the analogy of a blanket or ...
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Does Coulomb's Law, with Gauss's Law, imply the existence of only three spatial dimensions?
Coulomb's Law states that the fall-off of the strength of the electrostatic force is inversely proportional to the distance squared of the charges.
Gauss's law implies that the total flux through a ...
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Does gravity CAUSE the bending of spacetime, or IS gravity the bending of spacetime?
In reading these discussions I often see these two different definitions assumed. Yet they are very different. Which is correct: Does gravity CAUSE the bending of spacetime, or IS gravity the ...
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Is there 'friction' in spacetime?
So, if all the bodies are embedded in space-time and moves through it, is there some kind of 'friction' with space time of the planets? For example, the Earth suffers friction when moving near the sun ...
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Is 3+1 spacetime as privileged as is claimed?
I've often heard the argument that having 3 spatial dimensions is very special. Such arguments are invariably based on certain assumptions that do not appear to be justifiable at all, at least to me. ...
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Is spacetime discrete or continuous?
Is the spacetime continuous or discrete?
Or better, is the 4-dimensional spacetime of general-relativity discrete or continuous? What if we consider additional dimensions like string theory ...
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Is spacetime flat inside a spherical shell?
In a perfectly symmetrical spherical hollow shell, there is a null net gravitational force according to Newton, since in his theory the force is exactly inversely proportional to the square of the ...
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Do photons bend spacetime or not?
I have read this question:
Electromagnetic gravity
where Safesphere says in a comment:
Actually, photons themselves don't bend spacetime. Intuitively, this is because photons can't emit ...
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Does the universe have a center? [duplicate]
If the big bang was the birth of everything, and the big bang was an event in the sense that it had a location and a time (time 0), wouldn't that mean that our universe has a center?
Where was the ...
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Is spacetime wholly a mathematical construct and not a real thing? [closed]
Speaking of what I understood, spacetime is three dimensions of space and one of time. Now, if we look at general relativity, spacetime is generally reckoned as a 'fabric'. So my question is, whether ...
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Why should the Planck constant be a constant throughout all space?
Our value for the Planck constant $h$ can be found on experiments on Earth, but how do we know that the Planck constant doesn't change throughout space, for instance it depends weakly upon the ...
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GR and my journey to the centre of the Earth
[General Relativity] basically says that the reason you are sticking to the floor right now is that the shortest distance between today and tomorrow is through the center of the Earth.
I love ...
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What is a Lorentz boost and how to calculate it?
I know very little about special relativity. I never learnt it properly, but every time I read someone saying
If you boost in the $x$-direction, you get such and such
my mind goes blank! I tried ...
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Why is the gravitational force always attractive?
Why is the gravitational force always attractive? Is there another way to explain this without the curvature of space time?
PS: If the simple answer to this question is that mass makes space-time ...
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Why does the speed of an object affect its path if gravity is warped spacetime?
I think I understand the idea of thinking about gravity not as a force pulling an object towards another object but instead a warping of space so that an object moving in a straight line ends up ...
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If spacetime is curved, how would anyone know? If anyone could tell, would that really be spacetime curving?
I never had a problem accepting that spacetime is curved as a result of matter, until I learned the LIGO experiments showed that evidently the curvature of spacetime can be measured. This, to me, is ...
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How does classical GR concept of space-time emerge from string theory?
First, I'll state some background that lead me to the question.
I was thinking about quantization of space-time on and off for a long time but I never really looked into it any deeper (mainly because ...
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Rotate an object about the time axis
Is there a notion of rotating an object about its time axis? I'm not sure if this question totally makes sense, but it seems intuitive to me that an object with dimensions in the three spatial ...
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Can light exist in $2+1$ or $1+1$ spacetime dimensions?
Spacetime of special relativity is frequently illustrated with its spatial part reduced to one or two spatial dimension (with light sector or cone, respectively). Taken literally, is it possible for $...
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What's the point of Pauli's Exclusion Principle if time and space are continuous?
What does the Pauli Exclusion Principle mean if time and space are continuous?
Assuming time and space are continuous, identical quantum states seem impossible even without the principle. I guess ...
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Why is spacetime curved by mass but not charge?
It is written everywhere that gravity is curvature of spacetime caused by the mass of the objects or something to the same effect. This raises a question with me: why isn't spacetime curved due to ...
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Interval preserving transformations are linear in special relativity
In almost all proofs I've seen of the Lorentz transformations one starts on the assumption that the required transformations are linear. I'm wondering if there is a way to prove the linearity:
Prove ...
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Is there a frame of reference in which I was born before I was conceived?
I'm struggling to understand the relativity of simultaneity and position.
If my conception and birth are separated by time but not space, a frame of reference in which my birth and conception are ...
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Does the curvature of spacetime theory assume gravity?
Whenever I read about the curvature of spacetime as an explanation for gravity, I see pictures of a sheet (spacetime) with various masses indenting the sheet to form "gravity wells." Objects ...
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What is the definition of a timelike and spacelike singularity?
What is the definition of a timelike and spacelike singularity?
Trying to find, but haven't yet, what the definitions are.
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Swimming in Spacetime - apparent conserved quantity violation
My question is about the article Swimming in Spacetime.
My gut reaction on first reading it was "this violates conservation of momentum, doesn't it?". I now realize, however, that this doesn'...
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Intuition for multiple temporal dimensions
It’s easy, relatively speaking, to develop an intuition for higher spatial dimensions, usually by induction on familiar lower-dimensional spaces. But I’m having difficulty envisioning a universe with ...
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Is String Theory formulated in flat or curved spacetime?
String Theory is formulated in 10 or 11 (or 26?) dimensions where it is assumed that all of the space dimensions except for 3 (large) space dimensions and 1 time dimension are a compact manifold with ...
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Is an atomic nucleus dense enough to cause significant bending of the spacetime?
We know that an atomic nucleus is very dense, but is it dense enough to create some interesting relativistic effects?
Obviously, in the classic limit, where we just assume that nucleons are little ...
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Is the "spacetime" the same thing as the mathematical 4th dimension?
Is the "spacetime" the same thing as the mathematical 4th dimension?
We often say that time is the fourth dimension, but I am wondering if it's means that time is like the fourth geometrical axis, or ...
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Ether vs. Quantum Field Theory
We were asked a question to differentiate the difference between the idea of an Ether and the idea of Quantum Fields. When I really began to think about it I concluded that the ideas are the same. The ...
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Is space really expanding?
In a book called "Einstein, Relativity and Absolute Simultaneity" there was this sentence by Smith:
There is no observational evidence for a space expansion hypothesis. What is observed are ...
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Why do objects follow geodesics in spacetime?
Trying to teach myself general relativity. I sort of understand the derivation of the geodesic equation $$\frac{d^{2}x^{\alpha}}{d\tau^{2}}+\Gamma_{\gamma\beta}^{\alpha}\frac{dx^{\beta}}{d\tau}\frac{...
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Understanding time crystals
In very recent publications, two groups in Maryland (paper: "Observation of a Discrete Time Crystal") and Harvard (paper: "Observation of discrete time-crystalline order in a disordered dipolar many-...
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Would there be no time in a universe with only light?
It is sometimes said, that if you stand still (in space), you travel through time at the speed of light. On the other side light never stands still, so it always only travels through space (at the ...
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Einstein's postulates $\leftrightarrow$ Minkowski space for a Layman
What's the cleanest/quickest way to go between Einstein's postulates [1] of
Relativity: Physical laws are the same in all inertial reference frames.
Constant speed of light: "... light is ...
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Can quaternion math be used to model spacetime?
Quaternions are commonly used to model 4 dimensional systems where the quaternion consists of a real 3 dimensional vector and an imaginary scalar. So on the surface Quaternions seem well suited to ...
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Why isn't the center of the galaxy "younger" than the outer parts?
I understand that time is relative for all but as I understand it, time flows at a slower rate for objects that are either moving faster or objects that are near larger masses than for those that are ...
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If spacetime itself is expanding, how could we ever tell?
If space is the measured distance between 2 objects, then saying the space expanded is nonsensical unless we have a measuring stick outside of the space fabric to measure the expansion. 2 objects ...
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