Gravity Bowling Ball Rubber Sheet

This comic refers to a common analogy used to explain how mass distorts space time a bowling ball resting on a sheet of rubber distorts the sheet due to its weight.

Gravity bowling ball rubber sheet. Just placing an object somewhere in that dip will result in it rolling down the slope towards the bowling ball. The point is there is no pushing going on in the general relativistic model of gravity. In the classic classroom rubber sheet demonstration the marble rolls toward the bowling ball because the earth s gravity causes it to roll down hill. The gravity of the situation this shape can power through just about anything.

You can calculate this gravitational force as the product of the mass m and the gravitational field g. The system has some qualitative features in common with gravity. But a ball rolls on a surface because gravity is pulling it down. Why don t we use one dimension of space and the other of time.

This is the result of using a two dimensional analogy of a three dimensional universe. The typical rubber sheet bowling ball analogy to explain gravity visually in layman s terms always seems to be two space dimensions. Since i read cosmos long ago i see the same analogy about the balls rolling on a rubber sheet used to explain how gravity works. The rubber sheet analogy only works even for the orbits if you assume that the orbiting object tends to want to roll down hill in the dip made by the bowling ball.

It s often misused to show that mass warps spacetime 895. This is nothing at all like the way general relativity works. A higher differential translates to more flare potential so every time the ball makes a rotation it exposes a fresh portion of coverstock material to the oil. It isn t just warped space that s involved it is warped space time.

The flaw is this. The distortions in the rubber sheet representing the distortions in space and time. Hd is short for high density which lowers the rg and raises the differential of the weight block. In the cartoon image of einstein s explanation of gravity a rubber sheet is pulled tight and a bowling ball is placed in the middle.

It thus makes it seem like gravity pulls the golf ball down because the bowling ball pulls the rubber sheet down. If an object like a tennis ball is then thrown onto the rubber sheet the tennis ball will gravitate towards the bowling ball. Both are curved by mass and everybody takes eucledean cartesian type flat graphs of say x and t as a matter of course. The bowling ball has a greater mass so it also has a greater gravitational force.