# Q: Why do heavy objects bend space and what is it they are bending?

Physicist: Scientists can generally answer “medium complicated” questions.  The really hard ones are too damn hard, and the really simple ones are often “just the way things are”.  Or they may be really, really difficult questions in disguise.  You’ve found one of the fundamental questions that no one seems to have a good answer for.  We also don’t know why the mass, $M$, we use when talking about inertia (as in $F = MA$) is the same as the mass we use when talking about gravity (as in $F = \frac{GMm}{R^2}$).  The best theory I’ve ever heard is that matter is actually made of bunched up “knots” of space-time, and even that isn’t a terribly good a theory.

The second half of your question we do have an answer for, it’s just a little mind bending and hard to picture.  What heavy objects are bending is space itself. The way you detect space (follow me here) is with rulers or stretched out strings, or stuff like that.  Anything that measures distance.  Near heavy objects the distance between points is greater than you would expect, and you can use this fact to detect and measure the stretching of space.

The usual trick when trying to picture higher dimensional space is to knock off a couple of dimensions, and picture that instead.  3 dimensions is too complicated, and 1 is stupid, so here’s 2!

A circle and its diameter in flat space. Here D=6.5'', C=20.4'', and 20.4/6.5=3.13 ≈π.

A circle and its diameter in curved space. Here D=7.2'', C=20.4'', and 20.4/7.2=2.83<π

Take the circumference, $C$, and the diameter, $D$.  You’ll notice that on paper (flat space) $\frac{C}{D} = \pi$.  Which makes sense, since that’s the definition of $\pi$.  However, on the balloon (curved space) $\frac{C}{D} < \pi$, since the diameter is longer.  This effect is huge (infinite) for things like black holes, but for an object like the Earth the effect is tiny (ignore the hell out of it).  The stretching of space caused by the Earth’s gravity (well… that is Earth’s gravity) increases the diameter of the Earth by about 18mm.

That is, the diameter you get by measuring the equator and dividing by $\pi$ ($D = \frac{C}{\pi}$) is the “flat space diameter”, the diameter you get by physically dropping a rope through the planet is the true, “curved space diameter”, and the difference between these two is 18mm.

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### 64 Responses to Q: Why do heavy objects bend space and what is it they are bending?

1. The Physicist says:

@munna
You’re exactly right, I should have written “spacetime”.

2. Ray says:

Q. please help..maybe I’m just thick but In which direction is space” bent “by a moving body of given mass and gravitational force ? In all the programs I,ve watched the diagrams all indicate that the moving mass tents to bend it’s surrounding near space beneath itself, which indicates that the body’s mass distorts the space beneath it.However if space itself is void of mass how can it be distorted in any direction let alone in only one direction.If space is not a true void, i.e.space is made up of some form of mass then surely a moving body travelling through space would distort space all around it.Yes I know I’m thick!!! Can anyone clarify? Thanks.

3. Don says:

The statement “space is distorted below” is not totally accurate. I believe it is the result of how the distortion in three dimensions is conveyed to the reader/viewer. And it is typically displayed with a weight in the middle of a rubber sheet. Again, this is done to help convey the principle of what happens.

I don’t know how much correlation there is between the spacial distortion and the rubber sheet demonstrations. Therefore, take this with a grain of salt … If the rubber sheet had grid lines on it, as some images do, then dropping in the weight causes the grid lines to be distorted towards weight. I take this to mean that space is distorted towards (or pulled towards) the mass causing the distortion. So the actual spacial distortion is “towards” the mass, not “below” it.

4. Orien igney says:

Many brilliant minds have mulled this question over for centuries without success. Only Einstein came up with the theory of gravitational lensing which was later proven as fact, that something?, actually bends the track of photons around celestial objects but does not necessarily bend space itself. Personally I believe the innate property of magnetism in all matter will be proven as the catalyst holding the world together, one way or the other.

Kind of late to make a comment.

My explanation is that two objects (or more) filter out a bit of the zero point flux arising between them. This means there is a force greater outside the two objects that pushes them together. So there is no attractive force at play and no need to say space is curved yet every equation still works. Simple and elegant, IMHO.

6. Orien Rigney says:

If we knew what gravity was, it would be case closed. Unfortunately that statement can not be validaed as an absolute fact. Einstein gave us theory and formula to justify space/time warping with bungee balls and a springy sheet of rubber to illustrate his theory. But today, some thirty odd years after launch, Voyager and its twin are still out there in interstellar space zipping along in a straight line hopefully bound toward another planetary system. With multiple billions of miles behind them, as yet nothing has been said to alarmed us about space/time warping their trajectory. I don’t believe we have discovered everything about attraction and the status quo of planet orbital positioning or why they circumnavigate suns as they do. Of course, I don’t know why galaxies rotate around their cores either? But, having an iron core as our planet does, I can see why balls of any size and mass would if suspended on mile long cables above earth, would converge toward a central point instead of hanging straight down. They are seeking their own straight line toward earth’s center. If you dug a hole on to the center of our planet, and continued the cable length, the balls would eventually converge to a central point. Gravitational or Magnetic attraction? Take your pick.

7. The Physicist says:

@Orien Rigney
The motion of all of the planets, as well as all of our space probes, exactly follow the predictions of General Relativity. The Voyager probes are absolutely subjected “warped spacetime” in the form of gravity, all the time. We also understand why planets orbit the Sun and why galaxies rotate.
Magnetism is similarly a well understood force, that is definitely not gravity.

8. Orien Rigney says:

Having no skills in either physics or calculus, I can only give you my thoughts on Einstein’s theory of relativity and space/time generation. To begin with, whether we are talking about gravity or magnetism, what seems to be left out of either equation are the whys of directions and velocities. Unless figures lie; the universe, to include every single atom of it, is constantly expanding at a velocity of over 2 million miles per hour. Our own galaxy is rotating at approximately 500,000 miles per hour while maintaining this breakneck forward rush. Our sun, it has its own problems with its equator making a revolution every 26 days at one speed while the upper and lower segments rotate at a much lower rpm, taking 34 days, yet maintaining this 500,000 mile per hour trip around the galaxy. To what are these variable speeds relative? Earth, as all other planets in the solar system must maintain their variable distances and velocities as they revolve around our sun. Then we have the moons throughout our solar system doing the same as our own. I ask, to what are these variables related? Could it possibly be that relativity is nothing more than random chance combined with some very clever calculations? Our solar system has been around for roughly 4.5 billion years while slowly settling into a rut of which a battle is forever being played out to determine if our sun, planets, moons, comets, etc. will remain at a given time. This is likely the scenario of solar systems throughout the entire universe. As humans, we have witnessed only the smallest faction of thirteen billion years of random change this universe has undergone. You can make book on it though, before this century is over; what we experience as unflinching scientific fact today will have changed drastically. Oh my! To have learned calculus and physics in my youth.

9. Taco Smit says:

Forget about space-time bending, it is complete nonsense!
When an object accelerates in space (I still call it aether) the object will experience an inertia force. Gravity behaves as if it is the same as inertia, but when we stand motionless on the surface of the Earth why do we experience gravity?
Well simply the Earth absorbs aether (space) and therefore we get the same inertia force, but now we do not accelerate in the aether, but the aether accelerates in us.
But if the aether (space) is absorbed by stars, planets, moons etc. why don’t we run out of space? Good question, so something must emit aether to keep balance with the absorbed aether from all matter bodies like stars, planets etc.
We know that there are physical forces (not only gravity) which make matter getting denser and denser so forming galaxies, stars, planets etc. but if matter has the property to get denser then anti-matter should have the property to get less and less dense, that means it will have the tendency to spread out evenly over the universe.
So yes, space is expanding by emission from anti-matter, but this is only to compensate the absorption from matter (of stars, planets etc.) and this explains the redshift from light coming from far away galaxies, travelling through expanding space. This does not mean that the galaxies are receding from us so the universe is mainly static. This eliminates completely the need for the Big Bang theory, which is full of illogical assumptions and begins even with a singularity where everything comes from nothing, in my opinion an absurdity lacking any causality!
I hope this will be a more satisfactory explanation than bending space-time!

10. Ray says:

Yes, yes yes- all brilliant stuff isn’t it! The most basic question “how did it all begin” still baffles the most brilliant minds.Yet somehow I do believe that there is a simple answer to it all! to the beginning of everything! perhaps we’re all just thinking too hard and the explanation lies right under our noses. We seem to be bogged down looking for a needle in a haystack of theories and calculations.Yet, I do believe that the answer is staring us all in the face – we just can’t see it! Where did the very first basic element come from?The laws say that you cannot produce something from nothing! Well that law must be wrong, musnt’t it? unless everything has always existed in one form or another. If the latter is true then we are all wasting our time looking for the elusive “beginning”! Perhaps there has never been a beginning to everything and and there will never be an end to everything.Perhaps everything just changes form and keeps going round in a circle without a beginning or end, never ending, for eternity.If that is the case then “time” (as far as the cosmos is concerned) does not matter.Time is just a convenient chronological method for us to measure the progress of existence, intervals between past, present and future events and occurring phenomena.Oh Boy…It just keeps going on and on doesn’t it????? Ray

11. Orien Rigney says:

I get your reasoning Ray. How nice it would be if science could be explained away so rationally. Unfortunately I’ve tried a thousand times to do so and it still doesn’t work. No! Science requires more than just a small dose of analytical Physics and Math, of which most of us are usually a bit shy. BUT!………
Me, I like to think of the bending of space and time as nothing more than the magnetic attraction or repulsion of objects as they flow merrily along through the ether. We must remember that our entire universe was regulated to “specific speeds” billions of years ago by what was the vectorially and symmetrical velocity dictation of what we “speculate” as the Big Bang. This rule holds true today unless acted upon by either magnetism, entropy or collision, of which all pay a part in random chaos.

12. Taco Smit says:

Our mainstream science seems hardly logical and is very materialistic. We have theories like the evolution theory, the Big Bang theory, relativity theory etc. but if you go deeper in these theories these have all mayor flaws.
Calculate the chances that a life protein would form by random chemical reactions. I tried the example of a protein consisting of a chain of 100 amino acids, that would form by random chemical reactions and came to the conclusion that the odds that it could be produced was 1 chance out of 10 to the power of 250, which means impossible.
Now you may say that there is always one chance, well if this would have been the case, you have one protein waiting for ever for a second one, so forget about the simplest microbe (by the way there are no simple microbes, they are all very complex).
Now the Big Bang theory, which says the universe started 13,7 billion years ago.
With powerful telescopes we can see galaxies at 13 billion light years distance. So these galaxies cannot have an age beyond 700 million years. In this 700 million years it traveled 13 billion light years that is with an average receding speed of around 18.5 times the speed of light. However we can see the galaxy so after 700 million years the speed must have reduced to just under the speed of light, all rather bizarre. Moreover we can see galaxies at distances of 13 billion LY in any direction, so are we in the centre of the universe?
In particle physics we have elementary particles (this means these particles are not composed of other smaller parts) one elementary part is the electron with an electrical charge of -1 an other particle (anti matter) is the positron with a charge of +1, other elementary particles are quarks with charges of 1/3 or -2/3, how can an electron be an elementary particle if 1/3 and 2/3 of the electron or positron charges exist?
Einstein bases the relativity theory on the supposition that the speed of light is a constant and nothing can go faster than the speed of light. Why does a black hole still attract matter around it although light cannot escape from the black hole.
All valid questions, so our science is far from perfect and some fresh thinking would do good for the future of our science.
Real science should also include spiritual observations, by only concentrating on material science and exclude spiritual phenomena as humbug and not worthy of science, is a grave mistake.

13. djay1501 says:

Nothing can bend space as space is a vacuum, I do need to give any fanciful exquations or theoritical jargon but just plain common sense. If space is a vacuum where there is no medium I.e a void then common sense should tell you there is nothing to bend. These theories are just theories as they have no been proven. The scientific world is now sadly based on falsehoods that violate all common sense and logical reasoning. We live in a world where critical thinking is severely lacking, how can a beam of light travel thousands or million miles from a source to light a distant planet or object when logic dictates that it is illogical. For if I enter a dark room devoid of any light and have mirrors on every part of the four walls and take the strongest torch I have, if I turn on the torch and turn off it off the light disappears immediately. The light of the torch is not travelling around the room once the source disappears, this is common sense that a child can understand, so why is this false doctrine being preached when it is quite clear false. The theory of gravity as currently taught is another falsehood as common sense and reasoning tells us that it is not attraction for if it was the moon would come crashing towards the larger object of earth, if I have two objects on a flat plane the smaller object will not slowly start moving to the larger one as if by magic. Please start being more critical and stop believing falsehoods that by the own eyes and logic are false