Recent content by Rayzen

Yes, "Kraflyn," I was referring to the second meaning of "What exactly is spacetime?"

Lol! This thread is quickly spinning off into a metaphysical one, with talk about "what's real," and physicists asking, "...at some point, why?" Sounds like we have the makings of a great wine-and-toga group, here. But then I guess that's about all we can do, really; just ask guys like...

In reading the last sentence of my own last post, I just realized that it might have sounded as though I was implying that spacetime might be matter in the ordinary sense. ("...one definition of physics is that it's the study of the interaction of matter and energy") I definitely was not...

Hmm, now that's an interesting way to look at it, alright. I dunno. I guess that, just offhand, I'd have to wonder how you might define geometry, in that case. To me, the term "geometry" can have two meanings: it's either a pure branch of math., in which case it's once again only a human...

"a useful way to look at it is that spacetime is just a mathematical coordinate system that gives you the right answers." Yes, it's a useful coordinate system, for sure; e.g., it allows you to perform astrophysical calculations, much as they did during the "Boomerang" experiment, when they...

Hi "chill factor," thanks for the reply, but you just re-stated what I already said about the nice, two-dimensional models of planes containing graphic coordinates that are fun to look at, but you've said nothing about what the spacetime continuum actually is. Nothing there directly addresses...

Well, thanks for that answer, "Drakkith." Yeah, it's certainly one of those unfathomable things, isn't it? Like you said, calling it by a name, like a "metric," is really just avoiding the whole question. And like I said in my original post, I realize that nobody has the answer, of course...

What's being curved, when mass bends the "spacetime continuum?" Okay, I've read lots of books about Einstein's spacetime being curved by mass and all, but I've never read a really good hypothesis as to what, exactly, is being curved. You can't curved nothing (sounds like a double negative, but...