Rapid Fire
Spacetime: Geometry of Universe
- 15 Jan 2024
- 1 min read
Spacetime is a mathematical model that combines the three dimensions of space and the dimension of time into a single entity.
- The universe at the largest scale looked different from the scale of human experience due to the universe’s geometry.
- At the human scale, spacetime appears to be flat: a beam of light from a laser will travel in a straight line.
- But at the largest scale, our spacetime may actually occupy a spherical space.
- If you shine a powerful laser in front of you and wait for an incredibly long time, light from the laser could technically circle back to you.
- Albert Einstein’s special theory of relativity posited that if there are two observers A and B, each with a clock, such that A is moving (but not accelerating) faster than B, A’s clock will measure less time as having passed than B’s clock.
Read more: Einstein Was Right: Astronomers Confirm Key Theory of Relativity, Time Dilation in Early Universe
