Unraveling the Mystery of Gravity: The Role of Mass in Space-Time Distortion

[DaveC426913]

...I like thinking of it the other way, why does gravity cause mass.

Gravity does not cause mass.

 

[petm1]

"The point is that the raw material doesn't really have to come from anywhere. When you have strong gravitational fields, they can create matter." Stephen Hawking
I Found this quote in Cosmology forum today?

 

[Frame Dragger]

"The point is that the raw material doesn't really have to come from anywhere. When you have strong gravitational fields, they can create matter." Stephen Hawking
I Found this quote in Cosmology forum today?

Matter, not new mass.

 

[petm1]

Exactly.

 

[Frame Dragger]

Exactly.

OK then we're on the same page.

 

[petm1]

I'm still a little confused. In the time line of big bang mass does not come into play until the quark epoch with matter in the form of particles following and all formed from a gravitational singularity. But of course this is looking back through time.

 

[Frame Dragger]

I'm still a little confused. In the time line of big bang mass does not come into play until the quark epoch with matter in the form of particles following and all formed from a gravitational singularity. But of course this is looking back through time.

Energy and momentum existed, but not matter. I suppose there is also the issue of GUT theories and no SSB...

 

[petm1]

Gravity describes the geometry of space/time. The way that matter formed from this dilating gravitational singularity we call big bang into our visible universe, in my mind, makes gravity the cause and mass, the trail through the past to that dilating motion, the effect. Is this equivalent to mass causes gravity?

 

[stevmg]

How about this approach...

Imagine a laticework of an "infinite" (so-to-speak as we do not know if the universe is infinite) of points arranged in a zillion little cubelets. I cannot draw this. I wish I could.

Then imagine objects with mass in the latticework and displacing it outward creating compression towards the center of the mass. Hence, space is displaced outward and the tendency is to push obects in. This would be the gravity. The volume of the object is not relavant, only the mass. Ithink someone above talked about a "dent" in space time causing distortion. That's as good as anything else.