Re: Age of the Earth

ck19bla@xxxxxxx wrote:
>Richard Forrest wrote:

>> No. Gravity distorts *space*. Light still travels in a straight line.
>> The space which contains it is bent.
>>
>> RF

>if the container is bent the stuff *inside* is bent too.

Relativity is not a simple matter. Like quantum mechanics
it depends on what point of view you wish to take. A
newsgroup isn't the best place to learn about relativity.

I strongly suggest a book or even doing some googling. There
are a number of good sites up that will give you an introduction.

That said, you and several others, are switching between the
viewpoint that mass distorts the space it sits in and the
viewpoint that space is distorted and we see those distortions
as mass.

The talk about straight lines is also a bit misleading. Most
of us think of a "straight" line as a thing with no "bends"
that can be drawn on a flat two-dimensional surface like a
piece of paper.

If we define a "straight line" as the shortest distance between
two points, then we can extend the definition to curved spaces.

For example, take a piece of paper and put two dots in opposite
corners. Draw a straight line between them. That's the shortest
distance between the two points. Now fold the paper so that one
dot is almost next to the other. Now the shortest distance between
them isn't on the line at all. In fact you have to leave the paper's
surface completely, travel through a small bit of space and re-enter
the paper at the second dot.

That's very much shorter.

But if you were constrained to stay on the paper, the line is still
the shortest distance between the two points -- and is straight!

Of course to your three-dimensional eye the paper is no longer flat
and the line is no longer straight.

Now, holding the dots almost together, crumple the paper up. What
I said above still goes although the line, in three dimensions,
is now *very* distorted.

Now go read about relativity.

------ Paul J. Gans

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Age of the Earth
    ... > viewpoint that mass distorts the space it sits in and the ... > The talk about straight lines is also a bit misleading. ... > If we define a "straight line" as the shortest distance between ... > Now, holding the dots almost together, crumple the paper up. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Are Gravitational Waves Electromagnetic waves?
    ... The shortest distance between two points even in the curved 2D space ... traveling in a straight line in that space. ... dimension; it means that it discovered that its 2D space is curved. ... I see a logical problem with assuming an embedding space. ...
    (sci.physics.relativity)
  • Re: NBC: My pet subject
    ... a news video with graphics saying "third explosion heard at wtc" I think ... the tower fell on it, but I have yet to see evidence of that. ... If 47 steel pillars didn't go straight down, they would have bent in one ...
    (rec.music.artists.springsteen)
  • Re: Age of the Earth
    ... it follows a straight path through whatever ... >>One photographs a patch of the sky. ... >>point than in the photo without the sun. ... > The bloody light has NOT bent - space has. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Fallen tree ripped service entrance off building
    ... The insulator broke and the top half of the 1 1/2" service ... entrance pipe was ripped off the barn and bent way over. ... bend that pipe straight again. ...
    (alt.home.repair)