CATEGORY:
Show Me the Physics! Video Contest (2014)
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How Gravity Makes Things Fall by Karl Coryat
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Karl H Coryat wrote on Jul. 22, 2014 @ 22:03 GMT
Video Image
Video URLhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlTVIMOix3IVideo DescriptionA new demonstration of the effects of spacetime curvature, featuring the "Spacetime Stretcher," built mostly out of materials from my garage and the hardware store.
Video Creator Bio In addition to my physics interests, I create comedy and music videos under the pseudonym Edward Current ("Eddie Current"). It was a special challenge to provide insights into general relativity for a mainstream audience, with a demonstration that is more physically accurate than the conventional rubber-sheet demo. My essay "Toward an Informational Mechanics" won a Special Commendation prize in FQXi's 2012 Questioning the Foundations competition.
Douglas Alexander Singleton wrote on Aug. 17, 2014 @ 23:52 GMT
Dear Mr. Coryat,
Nice twist on the “rubber sheet” analogy of gravity. Actually this is very distinct from the usual way the rubber sheet analogy is used to present Einstein’s theory of GR. A colleague of ours (Gary White) has done a fair amount of work on quantifying to what extent the rubber sheet analogy “works”. This can be found in “The shape of “the Spandex” and orbits upon its surface” by G.D. White and M. Walker, American Journal of Physics 70, 48-52 (2002) and “On trajectories of rolling marbles in cones and other funnels”, by G.D. White, American Journal of Physics 81, 890-898 (2013). But again this work deals mostly with the usual way the rubber sheet analogy if used, but may be of interest. By the way one of the outcomes of Gary’s research was that spandex is the thing to use rather than rubber at least for this canonical version of the rubber sheet analogy.
Anyway a very good and lucid video on warping of space-time = gravity. Best of luck with the contest.
Mike, Max, Dan, Simon, Doug
Karl H Coryat replied on Sep. 8, 2014 @ 22:13 GMT
Thank you, Doug et al. When researching for this project, one thing I didn't understand is why we should expect geodesics on a traditional rubber sheet to converge (as two falling objects converse), when the traditional rubber sheet has negative curvature, which suggests divergence. One person I talked to said that the traditional rubber sheet is really just a visualization and is not a model in any strict sense of the word. Another pointed out that the geodesics of two objects falling in the same spacetime can in fact diverge, for example when they are traveling the same path through space but at different times. The project got me to appreciate some of the subtleties of spacetime that I hadn't realized before.
Member Marc Séguin wrote on Sep. 3, 2014 @ 00:38 GMT
Karl,
Thank you for a truly remarkable video! Your space-time stretcher fits wonderfully with the theme of this contest, "Show Me The Physics!"... better yet, "Show Me The MODERN Physics", which is, after all, what FQXi is all about! You are right when you say that the usual rubber sheet analogy is a bit of a let down, as it already requires gravity (to generate a downhill force) to explain gravity... The space-time stretcher is so much better... I want one! :)
Your video is well produced and very pedagogical, and it is, in my opinion, one of the very best that has been submitted to this contest. I hope it makes the finals and is recognized by the jury!
Congratulations!
Marc
P.S. If you have a chance to view, comment and vote on my trilogy of videos entitled "This Is Physics" --- where I try to convey the "fun of physics" by focusing on some of the greatest moments of its history --- it would be quite appreciated!
Karl H Coryat replied on Sep. 8, 2014 @ 22:23 GMT
I tried to imagine taking the traditional rubber sheet demo up to the International Space Station. First, no gravity means the "sun" does not depress the rubber. Even if we were to mechanically push the "sun" against the rubber sheet, the "earth" would not follow similar paths, because the force vector from Earth's gravity, perpendicular to the (flat) surface, is taken away in zero-G. Anyway, thanks for your nice words; I wish more people would vote. I'll check out your video. -KC
madeleine richter wrote on Sep. 8, 2014 @ 05:19 GMT
Hey Karl
as I'm a visual learner I found the space-time stretcher extremely clever and enlightening! It doesn't happen often, that one can find a simple (however not at all banal) visualization of a complex matter - like the relation between space-time. I loved the way you used the model to describe the three dimensional phenomenon. I wish you the best of luck and hope more physics teachers would come up with such creative ideas as you.
Madeleine.
Karl H Coryat replied on Sep. 8, 2014 @ 22:29 GMT
Thank you Madeleine! I had a similar flash of enlightenment when I saw the applet mentioned at the end of the video. But I really wanted to be able to see that straight geodesic get bent back into a parabola, to show a falling object's path from the perspective of the fixed observer. That's when I had the idea to make a model that would stretch and unstretch in the required way. Thanks for visiting - I look forward to watching your video on piezoelectricity ... as a musician I am very familiar with this phenomenon (as you likely know, piezoelectric pickups are commonly used for amplifying acoustic instruments). Good luck! -KC
madeleine richter replied on Sep. 11, 2014 @ 00:16 GMT
You're very welcome, Karl! We actually thought about filming a guitar session to show the piezoelectric pick-ups and underline it with music :) I hope you liked our video.
We would greatly appreciate if you could give us your vote and feedback, since we all need at least 10 community ratings to qualify for the finals. I really hope yours will be among them, since it taught me a lot.
I still think the Spacetime Stretcher is brilliant the way you made it work. Until then the only "model" I could find were 2-D images like
this one, which do show the parabolic curvature but take a different approach to explain the phenomenon.
Madeleine
Piezoelectricity: A Love Story
Cristinel Stoica wrote on Sep. 9, 2014 @ 05:59 GMT
Karl,
Your video was very fun and interesting! I also realized watching it that you are the checkmate guy! If you have time, I would appreciate if you will watch and rate my videos
The puzzle of quantum reality and
Can a black hole keep a secret?.
Best regads,
Cristi
Karl H Coryat replied on Sep. 26, 2014 @ 09:27 GMT
Don't blow my cover Cristi! Just kidding, thank you so much for watching and commenting, and best of luck in the competition.
Karl
Jonathan J. Dickau wrote on Sep. 26, 2014 @ 03:38 GMT
I like that!
I need to build a full-scale model of your space-time stretcher, Karl, that actually stretches the lines of the universe. But seriously; that was very cool.
I hope you get a chance to watch, rate, and comment on my video:
Can the Mandelbrot Set help us understand the Cosmos?Regards,
Jonathan
Karl H Coryat replied on Sep. 26, 2014 @ 09:26 GMT
Thank you, Jonathan, that means a lot to me, especially as I am something of a fan of both your work and Cristi's (above). Best of luck in the competition!
Karl
Claude Beaucaire wrote on Oct. 10, 2014 @ 15:38 GMT
I Karl, your demonstration is just amazing, I was wondering if you would be kinf enough to share your construction plan with a teacher eager to use the same device in class.
Thanks
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