B But how does something start moving?

  • B
  • Thread starter Thread starter Line_112
  • Start date Start date
Line_112
Messages
49
Reaction score
2
In my opinion, the curvature of space is geometry, not force. Geometry determines the path along which a body will move, regardless of its speed. It is no coincidence that the theory of relativity speaks of the geometry of space. That is, if we proceed from the general theory of relativity, then a body caught in the curvature of space will simply change its trajectory of motion, regardless of how fast it moves. And if it is initially motionless, then it will remain so. In reality, bodies begin to move vertically downwards, even if we do not push them. Their trajectory is calculated based on the fact that this is a force directed vertically downwards. The curvature of space itself cannot push a body, let alone vertically downwards. Therefore, it seems to me that GTR is devoid of logical meaning and contradicts basic concepts.
 
  • Sad
  • Skeptical
Likes weirdoguy, Dale, Motore and 1 other person
Physics news on Phys.org
Line_112 said:
In my opinion, the curvature of space is geometry, not force. Geometry determines the path along which a body will move, regardless of its speed. It is no coincidence that the theory of relativity speaks of the geometry of space. That is, if we proceed from the general theory of relativity, then a body caught in the curvature of space will simply change its trajectory of motion, regardless of how fast it moves. And if it is initially motionless, then it will remain so. In reality, bodies begin to move vertically downwards, even if we do not push them. Their trajectory is calculated based on the fact that this is a force directed vertically downwards. The curvature of space itself cannot push a body, let alone vertically downwards. Therefore, it seems to me that GTR is devoid of logical meaning and contradicts basic concepts.
In general relativity it is not space but spacetime that is curved. The distinction is crucial because is nothing is motionless in spacetime; we are always moving forward in time at the rate of one second per second.

An excellent illustration of how an object (in this case, an apple) that is motionless in space will start moving vertically downwards as a result of spacetime curvature is(credit to our member @A.T.)

As this thread is based on a misconception about the theory, it is closed.
 
  • Informative
  • Like
Likes L Drago and DaveC426913
Line_112 said:
it seems to me that GTR is devoid of logical meaning and contradicts basic concepts
Just a word of advice. Any time you think something like this of an established scientific discipline, you can immediately know that you are missing something.

In this case you were missing the time part of spacetime. But the point is that scientists are not idiots. We can be wrong, but the ways that we are wrong are much more subtle than this type of criticism.
 
  • Like
Likes L Drago, haushofer, ersmith and 6 others
I asked a question here, probably over 15 years ago on entanglement and I appreciated the thoughtful answers I received back then. The intervening years haven't made me any more knowledgeable in physics, so forgive my naïveté ! If a have a piece of paper in an area of high gravity, lets say near a black hole, and I draw a triangle on this paper and 'measure' the angles of the triangle, will they add to 180 degrees? How about if I'm looking at this paper outside of the (reasonable)...
From $$0 = \delta(g^{\alpha\mu}g_{\mu\nu}) = g^{\alpha\mu} \delta g_{\mu\nu} + g_{\mu\nu} \delta g^{\alpha\mu}$$ we have $$g^{\alpha\mu} \delta g_{\mu\nu} = -g_{\mu\nu} \delta g^{\alpha\mu} \,\, . $$ Multiply both sides by ##g_{\alpha\beta}## to get $$\delta g_{\beta\nu} = -g_{\alpha\beta} g_{\mu\nu} \delta g^{\alpha\mu} \qquad(*)$$ (This is Dirac's eq. (26.9) in "GTR".) On the other hand, the variation ##\delta g^{\alpha\mu} = \bar{g}^{\alpha\mu} - g^{\alpha\mu}## should be a tensor...
Back
Top