What does space-time fabric means?
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To understand the space time fabric you first need to understand the words separately, because it is actually a joining or combining of two separate entities.
Space refers to the physically realm around all the universe, when we talk about events occurring, we talk about them occurring in a certain area, that location were an event occurs is in space, because space is all round us. Space gives us direction and position, space allows us to move left/right, forwards.backwards and up/down. It's a 3D representation of our physical world.
Time is then the 4th dimension, time is not as we refer to it in our daily human existence but the very ticking clock of the universe, a ticking clock that is not absolute and also relative. Time is absolutely required to describe events in our world, you cannot accurately describe an event with space alone, events occur in space AND time. The 2 are actually inseparable, Space-time we call it, Because they are inherently related to each other. To be redundant, without space, time would be useless to us and without time, space would be useless to us. This mutual dependence is known as the Spacetime Continuum. Think of a map. With all 4 directions, North, South, East and West. lets say you were to go on a journey to the East, you are moving entirely to the East, none of your energy is going North, South or West. Now imagine you start going North, you are now moving to the East AND to the North...if you were to plot a graph of such movements you'll notice that the fact you are now also going to the north, you will be moving less in the East direction. The more North you go...the less you move to the East. And the more eastern you move, the less you move to the North. Now if you think of the Northern direction as 'Time' and the 'East' as Space...the same concept applies, the more you move in the Space direction(East), the less you move in Time. And the more you move in the Time direction(North), the less you move in Space.
hence when a body moves at the speed of light, time stops for that body.
To answer your question, Space time fabric is space and time woven together...as ONE. Space time fabric refers to the very basis of our universes existence, it is the thing that holds our planets, solar systems, moons and stars...Gravity and Quantum phenomena.
Space refers to the physically realm around all the universe, when we talk about events occurring, we talk about them occurring in a certain area, that location were an event occurs is in space, because space is all round us. Space gives us direction and position, space allows us to move left/right, forwards.backwards and up/down. It's a 3D representation of our physical world.
Time is then the 4th dimension, time is not as we refer to it in our daily human existence but the very ticking clock of the universe, a ticking clock that is not absolute and also relative. Time is absolutely required to describe events in our world, you cannot accurately describe an event with space alone, events occur in space AND time. The 2 are actually inseparable, Space-time we call it, Because they are inherently related to each other. To be redundant, without space, time would be useless to us and without time, space would be useless to us. This mutual dependence is known as the Spacetime Continuum. Think of a map. With all 4 directions, North, South, East and West. lets say you were to go on a journey to the East, you are moving entirely to the East, none of your energy is going North, South or West. Now imagine you start going North, you are now moving to the East AND to the North...if you were to plot a graph of such movements you'll notice that the fact you are now also going to the north, you will be moving less in the East direction. The more North you go...the less you move to the East. And the more eastern you move, the less you move to the North. Now if you think of the Northern direction as 'Time' and the 'East' as Space...the same concept applies, the more you move in the Space direction(East), the less you move in Time. And the more you move in the Time direction(North), the less you move in Space.
hence when a body moves at the speed of light, time stops for that body.
To answer your question, Space time fabric is space and time woven together...as ONE. Space time fabric refers to the very basis of our universes existence, it is the thing that holds our planets, solar systems, moons and stars...Gravity and Quantum phenomena.
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