- #1
Radiohannah
- 49
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Hello!
I'm trying to get my head around general relativity at the moment...(!), and there's one aspect of it that's really causing me a lot of kerfuffle.
I understand that in an appropriately sized local inertial frame, the laws of special relativity occur. On those scales the curvature of space-time will not be noticeable, and you are in an inertial frame of reference.
How, if at all, does this relate to the shape of the Universe?
If the Universe is spherical in the k=+1 case, is the space-time curved in the same way in that it curves around mass? Does that then have an additional/the same effect on things like orbits? Or is it on far too large a scale?
Do the Einstein field equations have any relation to the Friedmann equation, I think, is what I am trying to ask?!
I hope that makes sense!
Cheers!
Hannah
I'm trying to get my head around general relativity at the moment...(!), and there's one aspect of it that's really causing me a lot of kerfuffle.
I understand that in an appropriately sized local inertial frame, the laws of special relativity occur. On those scales the curvature of space-time will not be noticeable, and you are in an inertial frame of reference.
How, if at all, does this relate to the shape of the Universe?
If the Universe is spherical in the k=+1 case, is the space-time curved in the same way in that it curves around mass? Does that then have an additional/the same effect on things like orbits? Or is it on far too large a scale?
Do the Einstein field equations have any relation to the Friedmann equation, I think, is what I am trying to ask?!
I hope that makes sense!
Cheers!
Hannah