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Originally Posted by HankSolo
Can you straighten this out for me? (no pun intended) I'm still having trouble thinking of gravity as the curvature of space-time instead of as a force. If it is really curvature, then:
The earth does not orbit around the sun, correct? The earth and moon travel in a straight line, but the curvature of space-time makes it seem like we're going around the sun. Like drawing a line on a piece of paper and then making a cone out of the paper so that both ends of the line touch. The line is still straight based on the 2-dimensional plane on the paper, but is a circle (somewhat) to a three-dimensional observer.
But if we travel in a straight line through curved space-time, then our orbit around the sun should not be affected by velocity.
But if the earth actually orbits in a circle, and not a straight line, that means that there has to be something pulling us toward the center of the circle. How can curvature of space-time "pull" on an object without using a force? It should merely warp the path of a moving object, but not draw it into the center, and at the same rate regardless of the velocity.
What am I missing here?
Thanks in advance!
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What you are missing here is the fact that the Earth and the rest of the planets SPIRAL around the Sun in their movement in the galaxy/space.
Envision a spiral staircase, the Sun is the central pole with the planets on railings with different slopes, folowing the Sun. The orbits are but a projection on a plane perpendicular to the cetral pole/direction of travel. My beleive is that the bending of space is actualy the bending of a field thrugh which the Sun and the planets move, sort of enveloping them, just like water would envelope a moving object. Space might be empty of matter but not devoid of some sort of field. The so caled force of atraction must be the result/efect of the interacting fields, like magnet's fields do with magnets.