Does the space time continuum look like a bowling ball on a waterbed?

Question

Is that what 4D looks like?

lol!

Oh, and the bowling ball is painted to look like Earth.

Answer 1

the bowling ball is the right idea but its only an analogy. the surface of a water bed is only a 2-d surface, you need to imagine the depression thats being made in 3-d. for some mind bending fun google search hypercube. you should be able to find 2d drawings of 3d representations of 4d cubes.

Answer 2

In a way, yes, a bowling ball on a water-bed represents, quite accurately the effect of gravity a body of mass has in space. So if you look at it this way: the larger the bowling ball is, the deeper it will cause the "fabric" to sink, which actually represents an increased area that the force of gravity has an effect over.

Answer 3

4D is 3-D + 1D of Time (Temporal Dimension)
To meet someone you need 4 pieces of information.
Where in 3D space, but also, WHEN...very important.

The bowling ball you are referring to is inducing "space time curvature" ON the space time continuum.
The space time continuum is just space + time...distorted by a force or not (the bowling ball). Space time continuum would be the bed...distorted or not, independent of the bowling ball.