Rubber Sheet Model Gravity

The heavier the object the deeper the resulting gravitational well.

Rubber sheet model gravity.

The similarity is that something is warping which changes the path. Indeed physicists have known for ten years that a rubber sheet deformed by a central mass can never take on a shape that reproduces the gravitational effects of spacetime. The mechanisms behind rolling down a dent and the geodesics of spacetime are different. Think of space as a stretched rubber sheet.

The deformed sheet provides a mechanism of how gravity arises and the model has great explanatory power. In this case particles in curved spacetime follow paths that locally maximise the proper time the particle experiences. It is suitable to show orbital motions curved space and photon trajectories. Let me try the ant analogy in a bit more detail.

When something heavy is placed on the sheet it causes it to dip. In the words of john wheeler matter tells space how to curve. Epdm sheet rubber is a versatile blended sheet epdm sheet rubber is a versatile blended sheet composed of ethylene propylene diene monomer and styrene butadiene rubber. Yet no instructional model comes without limitations.

The dented rubber sheet done in earth s gravity is a not too bad analogy for newtonian gravity. In this model ist there a way to represent gravitational waves. On the surface of the earth the acceleration is given by so called standard gravity g approximately 9 8 m s 2 although this value varies slightly with latitude and altitude. For this reason epdm material is an excellent medium for outdoor uses.

This walking is the analogy to moving forward in time. The ants walk forward. The rubber sheet model sometimes also denoted spacetime simulator or pillow model 11 12 offers an intuitive explanation of gravity. Dropping a ball on a rubber sheet creates a change in the shape of the sheet.

With a rubber sheet the reason things roll into the bottom of the dent is well gravity. To visualize the space curvature related to gravity there is a model or analogy using an elastic sheet and a weight. The orange is curved space time. Here we have 1 space like dimension and one time like dimension curved into 3d.

A rubber sheet is spanned like a very soft trampoline and a heavy ball on it creates curvature in the sheet. The magnitude of the acceleration is a little larger at the poles than at the equator because earth is an oblate spheroid. It achieves an ideal balance to create an all purpose weather resistant rubber. This change does not affect the whole sheet instantly it propagates from the impact away.