If gravity is mass bending space time, doesn’t a ‘fabric of space’ or some other foundational structure have to exist to be bent in the first place? Why would light travel along a bend in space if space is not made of something?
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1The fabric of space is a very common but flawed way to explain the curvature of spacetime and make General Relativity understandable. Here is a couple videos that help make it clear. A new way to visualize General Relativity and What is General Relativity? – mmesser314 Mar 04 '23 at 17:08
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1The thing is as @mmesser314 said it is a way of explaining general relativity to larger public because obviously it is easier for them to understand rather than throwing bunch of formulae and equation which makes no sense to them!! in reality it is a mathematical framework that describes the relationship between space and time.. – Shardul Mar 04 '23 at 17:42
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2The unit sphere is curved. What is the fabric of the unit sphere? – WillO Mar 04 '23 at 17:47
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2There’s no fabric. It’s all just geometry. – Ghoster Mar 04 '23 at 17:50
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1possible duplicate: https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/90592/50583 and its linked questions – ACuriousMind Mar 04 '23 at 18:28
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The foundations of physics are measurements and observations. General Relativity is a model that successfully reproduces them. – John Doty Mar 04 '23 at 18:36
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1https://xkcd.com/895/ – Connor Behan Mar 04 '23 at 19:02
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There is no fabric of spacetime, spacetime itself is a mathematical construct. Great question. It’s a lame overused cliche because no one can come up with anything better than the failed description of General Relativity as a two-dimensional rubber sheet with weighted spheres placed on it in an already existing static gravitational field. It’s a horrible example and a failed attempt in my mind to remove gravity as a force and try to replace it by describing Differential Geometry in physical terms. It may succeed in describing the path of an object, but it certainly does not describe why an object accelerates due to another object no matter how hard and tortuous they get using differential geometry to explain why two objects gravitationally cause each other to accelerate, because there is no static gravitational field existing outside the Universe.
Dmitry Brant
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pcmankey
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