Space & Time: How Are They Related?

[D0rk_L0rd]

TL;DR

I need help with my Research Project, specifically these 3 questions:
“What does warping space or time individually look like, and how can they be differentiated?”
“Can the topography of space be altered without changing the flow of time (even to a limited extent), or vice versa?”
“If space or time can (or cannot) be distorted in this way, how can (or why can’t) it be done?”

All help is welcome!

 

[fresh_42]

Summary:: I need help with my Research Project, specifically these 3 questions:
“What does warping space or time individually look like, and how can they be differentiated?”
“Can the topography of space be altered without changing the flow of time (even to a limited extent), or vice versa?”
“If space or time can (or cannot) be distorted in this way, how can (or why can’t) it be done?”

All help is welcome!

What have you found out so far? E.g. Wikipedia has probably a lot to say about these questions. And what do you know about special relativity? The speed of light connects the two.

 

[Dale]

Hi @D0rk_L0rd , welcome to PF!

This question is sufficiently advanced that we will leave it here rather than in the homework section, but we don't just do people's homework for them here. We require that you show your own effort. We will help you take the next step from there.

 

[pervect]

If you don't have a reading list for your project, I will suggest looking at "Parable of the Surveyor" in "Space-time physics", which is the first chapter in Taylor & Wheeler's undergraduate special relativity textbook, "Space-time Physics". The first several chapters of the first edition are available free online at the author's website, at http://www.eftaylor.com/pub/stp/STP1stEdThruP20.pdf. This is the link to the actual download of the specific chapter I recommend, the top level of the website is http://www.eftaylor.com/.

 

[Nugatory]

I'll strongly second @pervect's recommendation of the Taylor and Wheeler book. You should also learn about Minkowski spacetime diagrams: the basic idea is that if an obect is moving along the x-axis you can plot its position at any given time on an x-t graph.

I do see that you started this thread with a B tag, indicating that you want answers appropriate for a high school physics class instead of a college-level one (algebra and trig but no calculus; no electromagnetic theory). Is this what you intended, or should we be pointing you at some more advanced sources as well?