Recent content by Mad Dog

To answer the original question (about replacing the shock absorber with a piece of solid steel): The answer is easily seen with a "reduction to the absurd" type argument: If you put a really soft spring on your bike, the force at the frame would obviously would be really soft too (, of...

Thank you Shoehorn- Please understand that I'm trying to learn GR (down here in the bowels of Mexico) from books and without the aid of either a teacher or fellow students. This forum is my only contact with those who know more than I, so I appreciate every response from anyone who offers their...

Thanks atyy. One could also get there calculating the Ricci and Weyl tensors, but... but... but... ain't there no easier way? The simple rule I gave worked in the 7 examples I've checked. Still wondering.

I’m aware that the metric contains information regarding both the coordinate system and the curvature of spacetime, and have been trying to understand how a glance at it could tell one if the spacetime it expressed is curved. At this point, I suspect that: If any of the metric components...

I'm replying here to my own question, as a contribution to the Forum: Even after having received the answers to my question, I continued to be concerned, and finally realized the answer is simple and obvious: The name of the field is "Relativity" and the key is right there - we're talking...

As I try to understand GR, I find coordinate transformations just about everywhere. My question is simply: What is the reason coordinate transformations play such an important role in GR? Thanks.