Spacetime

What?

Scientists represent space as a 2D grid. Our solar system, for example, would look as if you’d drawn it on a pice of paper. This method doesn’t accurately depict reality but it does help us under stand one thing, gravity.

Anything that has mass exerts a force called gravity. Gravity is basically a force that acts between objects. For example, we attract the Earth the same way the Earth attracts us.

Anyway, gravity is represented as a divot or depression on the 2D grid. The more mass an object has the stronger its force of attraction or, the stronger its gravity. Although not represented on the spacetime grid, the force of attraction also depends on the distance between the two objects, the closer they are the stronger the force of attraction and vice versa.

So, the more massive the object, the deeper its depression in spacetime. The effect objects have on this grid is called ‘the curvature of spacetime’.

This grid is used to display the entire cosmos extending the outer reaches of space. It is accepted as a standard model that is, if Einsteins theory remains correct.

Image of spacetime grid from http://www.sciencenews.org