Gravity Rubber Sheet Analogy

Experiments reveal that deformed rubber sheet is not like spacetime.

Gravity rubber sheet analogy.

Now physicists have tested this idea theoretically and experimentally and say it doesn t hold water. The rubber sheet analogy for einstein s general relativity model of gravity is a popular way to visualize the effect mass has on the curvature of spacetime. One of the most famous analogies in science is fundamentally flawed say physicists who have shown that a. The rubber sheet or trampoline analogy for gravity is flawed because it is not fully three dimensional as a real star and planets would be.

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. In space it will follow a straight line and go over any hole on the surface. This state of affairs is almost entirely the result of one the most famous analogies in science. But a ball rolls on a surface because gravity is pulling it down.

The right hand side of this pair of drawings is closer to real life but still not accurate. My single group quasi experimental study with repeated measures was designed to assess the effectiveness of the rubber sheet analogy in teaching gravitational fields.