what does it mean for space to warp around itself? when something warps it creates more "space?"?

Question

the theory of relativity suggests this. so when space warps around itself, then what remains where the space was supposed to be?

Answer 1

There's no space where the space is "supposed to be". Space is everything. The Earth's surface wraps back into itself, meaning that if you travel 40,000 km you're back where you started. You can say that this is because your path is not "really" straight, like a straight line in outer space. But this is only because the 2-dimensional surface of Earth is embedded into a 3-dimensional space which is not curved (or at least, if it is curved, the curvature is so weak that we don't perceive it as such). If you were a 2-dimensional creature bound to the surface of Earth, you would have difficulty visualizing that the Earth is round. We are 3-dimensional creatures who can visualize a round Earth because we can look at it from outside.

If you travel some 50,000,000,000 light years (or whatever the circumference of the universe turns out to be) you come back where you started. This is not because you traveled in a circle and "missed" what is "outside" the circle. There is no outside.

Answer 2

You've described the theoretical conditions deep within a black hole. There, gravity is so powerful that it can warp spacetime to such an extreme that it virtually loops back on itself. The important point is that this space still exists; it's not destroyed. Outside of the region of maximum distortion there's still plenty of spacetime, warped less and less as the distance from the center of gravity increases.

Answer 3

einsteins general theory of relativity talks about how gravity affects space. the more gravity, the more affect/warping. if there is enough gravity (a black hole is the most common example used) space will be warped to the point of breaking/folding in on itself/causing a hole etc. is more 'space' created? no one knows but the most likely answer is no.

Answer 4

If space/universe is always expanding, why can't it wrap/warp and create (for lack of a better word)
It seems to be doing just fine by itself?!

Answer 5

ah..now youve done it...

you cannot create MORE space. that is the ONLY constant in this Universe..that there is just enough space for everything..and no more.

Space is space...the only way you can create more is to remove an object from it..

Answer 6

ok, if you make a straight line it its just so long, if you take a ribbon and warp and bend it, till it reaches the same line as the straight line, then you pull it straigt it could be three times as long as the first line.

Answer 7

It is space again.