Why does matter bend the "fabric" of space time???

Question

Thanks for your answer...Tom Science 4

Answer 1

Before relativity, Time was considered as absolute and has nothing to do with space. When we want to measure length of some object which is at rest. there is no problem time does not come into picture, but when the object is moving you have to have a signal which tells you that the scales two readings were in contact with the two ends of the object at the same time. So length measurement involves time as well as the signal. Scientist did not bother about this much because light was there with very large velocity almost infinite but not infinite. It was thought that a signal with infinite velocity may also be there in theoretical sense. But the experimental and theoretical work showed that Velocity of light is finite independent of the velocity of source and observer and there cannot exist anything faster than that. This necessitated a change in our thinking about the concept of time and space. They were related and the velocity of light and the direction of a photon in space time diagram related it. Now this photon being energy also has mass and matter attracts mass so it attracts a light ray or photon. So photon which moves in matter free space in straight line moves now on a curved line. The photon represents the shortest path in space time. This path is straight in matter-free space and and curved in space time near matter. So shortest distance is not a straight line as it happens on spherical surface. so we say that the space-time bends near matter. Also if we really think about time one cannot imagine it without some change taking place some where. Without matter it is difficult to imagine time. Thus even intuitively even classically space, time and matter are connected, the general theory of relativity makes it explicite.

Answer 2

Although Newton discussed the bending of light in his Opticks treatise in 1704, let us take it from Einstein's famous formula, E=mc^2. The photon's energy is equivalent to mass. Therefore, a photon which travels next to a massive object e.g. our Sun, would feel the gravitational field of the Sun just like every other massive object. Indeed Edington has confirmed this in the famous 1919 eclipse. Today scientists doubt that Edington has actually observed a deflection of roughly 1.61 seconds of arc, but nevertheless Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VBLI) observations do confirm beyond any doubt the light bending effect. The departure from a Newtonian (in fact Aristotelian) space-time to the theory of relativity leaves us with only one possible interpretation and that is that the 'geodesic' that traces the path of the photon is a description of the space-time fabric around the Sun. Space-time is a collection of events if the events trace consistently a curved path then space-time is bent.

Answer 3

Because the Universe is 90% Dark matter,Dark Matter is the Fabric of Space..Planets are denser than the Dark Matter around it..Put a bowling Ball on a Mattress,the Ball is the Earth the Mattress is dark matter (Space) the Ball makes a indentation into the Mattress which explains gravity and why the moon gets pulled into the Earths indentation of Space...The Larger the mass the bigger the indentation, which is why all the planets are in the Suns indentation and not Earths...Cause its Bigger...

Answer 4

Matter is not bending space, but condensing space.

Without air resistance or other obstructing forces, Two objects of different mass will "fall" to the earth at the same speed even though one may weigh much more than the other.

This is because the objects are being "condensed" at the same rate.

Weight is an affect of the "pressure" caused by the condensing, and has no relation to the speed at which all objects are being condensed (or falling to the earth).

This also helps explain Albert Einstein's theory's and reinforce his math, and for children it helps to show how the moon flinging off into space from centripetal force is a silly idea.

The moon's path being "bent" by the earth's gravity is a poor way to word the Einstein's explanation.
A better way is to say the moon is moving in a straight line, but since space time is condensing more on the side of the moon closer to the earth it causes the moon to move through space slower on the earth's side, and thus turning the moon as it goes, and causing it to orbit the earth.
The moon does not happen to rotate around its axis at the exact same rate it rotates around the earth.

A proof of the condensing of space would be to fill volumes (balloons) from an air tank filled to a measured amount on a planet without atmospheric pressure, like the moon. Then do the same in outer space.
The same tank will fill more balloons in outer space than it will in the condensed space on the surface of the moon.

To ask why matter does this we go to a theory of easiness.
It is less stressful (or takes less energy) for a bubble to exist as a sphere than any other shape.
It is less stressful for energy to follow the shortest (or most condensed) path through space.
It is less stressful on matter to exist beside other matter than it is to exist out in the universe by itself, trying to hold itself together under its own attraction.
Its much easier for it to exist gathered together, so it does.

Great Question, Cheers
- Aaron Bergquist

Answer 5

The honest answer is that we don't know. Whether you view gravity as a force between masses or as a distortion of spacetime, you still have no explanation for why it happens.

Answer 6

oh they dont our centuries old laws of physics need to be re-written