science project on black holes. any sites you know of would be useful too. Everyone is asking me about how space and time is connected to make space time. i get the "plastic sheet" idea, but what is the time part of it?
2007-01-03 06:38:05 · 4 answers · asked by the true north 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Space-time is the geometric background on which spacetime "events" occur. A spacetime event is simply something that occurs at a particular place at a particular time. Think of a firecracker exploding. A spacetime event can therefore be specified by three space coordinates and one time coordinate.
The time coordinate is different from the space coordinates. One difference is that a person is always moving forward in time: you must move one second into the future every second.
The critical thing about "spacetime" in Special Relativity is this: if two people are moving with respect to each other, one person's time coordinate is "rotated" compared to the other person's. Suppose observer A sees two firecrackers both explode at exactly 10 o'clock, one foot apart. If observer B is moving fast compared to observer A, observer B will see the firecrackers explode at different times, and closer together than one foot apart. In other words, observer B's four-dimensional spacetime is rotated compared to observer A's spacetime. This shows that the time coordinate is indeed unified with the three space coordinates, to make a four-dimensional whole. One person's time consists of some of the other person's time and some of the other person's space. Space and time can be transformed into each other.
2007-01-03 07:32:45 · answer #1 · answered by cosmo 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Cosmos' answer is pretty good. I'd also recommend reading Brian Greene's books "The Elegant Universe" [1] and "The Fabric of the Cosmos." They are both good books, well-written for non-scientists, without too much technical jargon but without "dumbing down." He's a writer who knows his stuff, explains it well, and respects the reader's intelligence.
2007-01-04 05:33:31 · answer #2 · answered by peter_lobell 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
A space-time pulse initiated the universe.
Subtract time or space from either and they both go out of existence.
2007-01-04 10:28:46 · answer #3 · answered by Billy Butthead 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
time is man made, anything thqat does not alter the universe such as time is manmade, for istance if time was never "INVENTED" the earth could still continue orbiting the sun along with the other planets. time is man made
2007-01-03 23:11:50 · answer #4 · answered by cozyslegend 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋