Is there a simple model to explain space-time?

Question

I just can't visualize it at all. No equations please. I have zero math skills. Explain the theory of relativity to me like I was a four year old.

Answer 1

Ok boy, there are things that you'll understand when you grow up.

Answer 2

The simple model for the warpage of space-time can be something like this: Imagine a fairly large sheet of rubber held by four people at the corners. The sheet has grid lines on it which represent "unwarped" space-time when they are straight. Now put a heavy bowling ball in the middle of the sheet and the sheet warps to accommodate it, bending the grid lines. Now if a fifth person where to roll a small ball quickly enough on the side of the sheet, it would curve towards the bowling ball because of the warped surface and would circle around it before eventually hitting the bowling ball. This is a simulation of gravity on the space-time plane (planets don't hit the sun that quickly due to their huge mass and consequently huge inertia). Though this is a simulation for space, it also simulates time- however, time is a bit more difficult to imagine. In the time part of the model, the closer one goes to a spot on the sheet that is warped, the slower time passes for that object.
A more accurate space-time model would involve warped grid lines spanning a three-dimensional space, but that would be difficult to imagine.

I hope that helps.

Answer 3

Relativity says, "As matter approaches the speed of light mass approaches infinity and time approaches zero." This means that an object gets heavier the faster it moves and it sees time as slowing down. If you have trouble understanding how time can slow down you are not alone. If a clock moves at close to the speed of light its parts get heavier and there is not enough energy in the mechanism to move the heavy parts at a normal rate so the clock shows a lower reading, than a similar clock at rest, would show. To me it is not time that has slowed, it is motion. I believe that time is a man made thing and there no such thing as space-time. It is space and movement that bound together. Think about it. Everything is easier to understand and this nonsense of travelling through time could be sent to the trash can, where it belongs.