Fabric Of Space

[Chame1eon]

what is it? spandex?
no really what is it? how can you describe something 3d as 2d fabric anyway?

[ziggyjuarez]

Im smart!
it;s the thing that make's up life

[manker]

fabric isn't 2d

Edit: I misread this thread and thought the poster was asking what spandex was. Um. My answer is still good though, I think...

[Chame1eon]

Originally posted by manker@7 August 2004 - 08:57
fabric isn't 2d

Edit: I misread this thread and thought the poster was asking what spandex was. Um. My answer is still good though, I think...

well ok it's not, but it's pretty thin

[ziggyjuarez]

[manker]

It sure is.

No-one knows the answer to your question but there is a school of thought that thinks that mainly the fabric of space is made up mostly of an invisible, almost magical, substance called dark matter which accounts for over 95% of the total mass of the universe.

[Snee]

Can't the word fabric metaphorically merely be used as a way to say constituents?
Sort of like the components in a weave or so.

I thought so.

Any way, it's damned hard to say.

It's a symphony played on super-strings, sorry super-rings, no wait, a membrane. Floating in the macroverse, or not.

It's also particles, atoms, photons, electrons, quarks.

And a projection of something else

[Chame1eon]

Originally posted by SnnY@7 August 2004 - 09:19
Can't the word fabric metaphorically merely be used as a way to say constituents?
Sort of like the components in a weave or so.

i can't believe i didn't think of it htat way.
well what is was thinking of was a part of a show that i saw a long time ago. they said a black hole might be a bend in the fabric of space and to illustrate they put a ball on a trampoline and showed how a marble would roll towards the bigger ball. That's why i was thinking of something flat . anyway i just don't see how that would work on something that doesn't have a surface.
i htought a black hole was jsut something that was so dense it had enough gravity to pull ohter things into it. what's bending

[J'Pol]

Originally posted by Chame1eon+8 August 2004 - 12:21--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Chame1eon @ 8 August 2004 - 12:21)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-SnnY@7 August 2004 - 09:19
Can&#39;t the word fabric metaphorically merely be used as a way to say constituents?
Sort of like the components in a weave or so.

i can&#39;t believe i didn&#39;t think of it htat way.
well what is was thinking of was a part of a show that i saw a long time ago. they said a black hole might be a bend in the fabric of space and to illustrate they put a ball on a trampoline and showed how a marble would roll towards the bigger ball. That&#39;s why i was thinking of something flat . anyway i just don&#39;t see how that would work on something that doesn&#39;t have a surface.
i htought a black hole was jsut something that was so dense it had enough gravity to pull ohter things into it. what&#39;s bending [/b][/quote]
In your trampoline analogy the surface is two dimensional (or intended to be).

When they put the bowling ball on it bends the two dimensional space into a third dimension.

Think of it that way. The bend in the fabric of space happens in another dimension which you cannot perceive directly.

Remember there are lots of things you cannot perceive directly, the simplest examples are sounds which are outside of your hearing, or wavelengths of light which you cannot see.

[Snee]

I think it might be easier to think of the universe as a big blob or something if you&#39;re not to used with the concept of a few more dimensions.

When space gets bent it&#39;s sort of as if the black hole is pulling on surrounding parts of the blob that is the universe, so that the area closest to the hole gets more dense.

Now as there isn&#39;t much in the way of visible matter in the universe it&#39;s gets a bit odd I suppose as there is no actual increase of its density, but what happens is that locations of the blob that used to be distant from one another, and in some ways still are, are now closer to each other as it seems for objects moving through these areas.

It sort of distorts space, and even effects light passing through. For instance, if there is a star on the other side of a black hole seen from our point, the hole eats the light that might be going our way.

At the same time light that was going to the left and right of us will alter course before it escapes the pull of the hole, meaning the we may see two stars, where the one star should be.

Looking back at this it isn&#39;t very clear, but I hope you get the idea.

EDits: spelling, minor clarification.

What the hey

Did I spend ten minutes posting that?
When I started JP hadn&#39;t posted.